Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:30:40.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Injury and Insult—Considerations of the Neuropathological Aetiology of Mental Subnormality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Valerie Cowie*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton, Surrey SM5 4NR

Extract

We have gone far in getting to grips with the nature of the error underlying mental handicap in many conditions. In a number of these, this has given scope, for example, for treatment based on biochemical correction, and for valuable preventive measures. The cause of the condition of many mentally handicapped patients, however, remains mysterious when neither history-taking nor investigations have led to any clues.

Type
Lecture
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1980 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bessman, S. P. (1972) Genetic failure of fetal amino acid ‘justification’. A common basis for many forms of metabolic, nutritional and ‘non-specific’ mental retardation. Journal of Pediatrics, 81, 834.Google Scholar
Bower, T. G. (1966) The visual world of infants. Scientific American, 215, 80–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, B. E. (1971) Synopsis of discussion. In Phenylketonuria and some other Inborn Errors of Amino Acid Metabolism (eds. H. Bickel, F. P. Hudson and L. I. Woolf). Stuttgart: Georg Thieme.Google Scholar
Cowie, V. A., Harris, R. F. & Stern, J. (1974) Changes in the heterozygotes for phenylketonuria. Proceedings of the Third Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Mental Deficiency. The Hague, September 1973.Google Scholar
Crome, L. & Stern, J. (1972) Pathology of Mental Retardation. Edinburgh and London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Day, R. H. & McKenzie, B. E. (1973) Perceptual shape constancy in early infancy. Perception, 2, 315–20.Google Scholar
Dobbing, J. (1974) The later development of the brain and its vulnerability. In Scientific Foundations of Paediatrics (eds. J. Davison and J. Dobbing). Heinemann International Medical Publications.Google Scholar
Fisch, R. O. & Anderson, J. A. (1971) Maternal phenylketonuria. In Phenylketonuria and some other Inborn Errors of Amino Acid Metabolism (eds. H. Bickel, F. P. Hudson and L. I. Woolf). Stuttgart: Georg Thieme.Google Scholar
Floeter, M. K. & Greenough, W. T. (1979) Cerebellar plasticity: modification of Purkinje cell structure by differential rearing in monkeys. Science, 206, 227–9.Google Scholar
Headon, M. P., Sloper, J. J., Hiorns, R. W. & Powell, T. P. S. (1979) Cell size changes in undeprived laminae of monkey lateral geniculate nucleus after monocular closure. Nature, 281, 572–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hsia, D. Y-Y. (1971) Discussion. In Phenylketonuria and some other Inborn Errors of Amino Acid Metabolism (eds. H. Bickel, F. P. Hudson and L. I. Woolf). Stuttgart: Georg Thieme.Google Scholar
Kratz, K. E., Sherman, S. M. & Kalil, R. (1979) Lateral geniculate nucleus in dark-reared cats: loss of Y-cells without changes in cell size. Science, 203, 1353–4.Google Scholar
Mabry, C. C., Denniston, J. C., Nelson, T. L. & Son, C. D. (1963) Maternal phenylketonuria: a cause of mental retardation in children without the metabolic defect. New England Medical Journal, 269, 1404.Google Scholar
Norton, T. T., Casagrande, V. A. & Sherman, S. M. (1977) Loss of Y-cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus of monocularly deprived tree shrews. Science, 197, 784–5.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. R., Bennett, E. L. & Diamond, M. C. (1972) Brain changes in response to experience. Scientific American, 226 (No. 2), 22–9.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. R., Bennett, E. L. & Diamond, M. C. (1969) Influences of environmental complexity and visual stimulation on development of occipital cortex in rat. Brain Research, 14, 427–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saugstad, L. F. (1971) Synopsis of discussion. In Phenylketonuria and some other Inborn Errors of Amino Acid Metabolism (eds. H. Bickel, F. P. Hudson and L. I. Woolf). Stuttgart: Georg Thieme.Google Scholar
Saugstad, L. F. (1972) Birthweights in children with phenylketonuria and their siblings. Lancet, i, 809.Google Scholar
Smith, D. W. (1970) Recognizable Patterns of Human Malformation. Philadelphia, London, Toronto: W. B. Saunders & Co.Google ScholarPubMed
Tanner, J. M. (1978) Foetus into Man—Physical Growth from Conception to Maturity. London: Open Books.Google Scholar
Tocci, P. M. & Beber, B. (1973) Anomalous phenylalanine loading responses in relation to cleft lip and cleft palate. Pediatrics, 52, 108.Google Scholar
Volkmar, F. R. & Greenough, W. T. (1972) Rearing complexity affects branching of dendrites in the visual cortex of the rat. Science, 176, 1445–7.Google Scholar
West, R. W. & Greenough, W. T. (1972) Effect of environmental complexity on cortical synapses of rats: preliminary results. Behavioural Biology, 7, 279–84.Google Scholar
Woolf, L. I., McBean, M. S., Woolf, F. M. & Cahalane, S. F. (1975) Phenylketonuria as a balanced polymorphism: the nature of the heterozygote advantage. Annals of Human Genetics (London), 38, 461.Google Scholar
Woolf, L. I., Ounsted, C., Lee, D., Humphrey, M., Cheshire, N. M. & Steed, G. R. (1961) Atypical phenylketonuria in sisters with normal offspring. Lancet, ii, 464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yonas, A., Cleaves, W. T. & Pettersen, L. (1978) Development of sensitivity to pictorial depth. Science, 200, 77–8.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.