CONTACT: Juanita Bouser
Catawba College
704.637.4393
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / June 29, 2000
SALISBURY, NC -- A Catawba College professor has found that differences exist in the brains of men and women when they are tested on spacial perception.
Using an ultrasound device, Dr. Al Roberts discovered that the blood in women's brains flows faster than that of men when they perform tasks that require spacial ability. But men perform more accurately on the tasks even though women apparently expend more cognitive effort.
This research, which appears in the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Psychophysiology, reflects only a part of the research Roberts is doing with a transcranial Doppler machine, a device that determines how the speed of blood changes when people think or do various tasks. In the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Neuroimaging, he reveals that the speed of blood to the brain slows considerably after drinking a single cup of caffeinated coffee.
Roberts, chair of the Psychology Department at Catawba, speculates that this technology may one day help to diagnose Alzheimer's disease before a person starts showing signs of the condition. Or determine the prognosis of stroke victims -- even if they can't talk.
Neurologist Dr. William McKinney, who serves as a co-author with Roberts, notes that the Catawba professor has demonstrated that doing mental tests can be tracked in the brain. The medical community uses the instrument for such things as detecting signs of stroke or blockage of blood to the brain, determining how anesthesia affects blood flow velocity or detecting problems with oxygen to the brain during open-heart surgery.
"Only a few of us are moving into behavioral studies," Roberts says. Four others in Germany, Italy and Switzerland are also engaged in non-clinical research with the machine.
"I'm studying what happens to the blood flow in the brain if you're paying attention to something, if you engage in a motor activity, if you imagine yourself doing some movement," Roberts says. "My research indicates that thinking can change the dynamics of the circulatory system."
His research may eventually be used to determine the prognosis of stroke victims, even if they have lost their ability to speak. "What we can do is see how the brain is working by looking at the speed of the blood," Roberts says. "They don't have to give me an answer for me to know they're actively involved in the task."
He is currently testing older people to see how their velocity changes compare to those of younger subjects.
Roberts sees possibilities for using the instrument to diagnose Alzheimer's disease. "The person may not be manifesting Alzheimer's in a dramatic way, but we may be able to see some blood flow changes that might alert doctors of early signs," Roberts says.
McKinney thinks the machine could eventually be used as a screening device to determine if individuals have an aptitude for a particular activity. "Wouldn't it be interesting to look inside the brain and see which students are going to be successful musicians and which ones are going to be baseball or basketball players?" he asks.
"It could be used as a screening tool of the future. If an artery won't support the blood into a particular area of the brain, there's no reason to try to teach a person that task."
McKinney also sees possibilities for use in the field of mental illness. "Do people who suffer from schizophrenia or depression or panic attacks have different flows?" he asks. "Is there a difference in people who are stimulated into migraine headaches? Roberts is breaking ground to do all these areas."
This new technology will likely have myriad applications. "It's not quite Star Wars," McKinney says, "but it's getting close."
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