Patent No. 4699153 System for assessing verbal psychobiological correlates

 

Patent No. 4699153  System for assessing verbal psychobiological correlates (Shevrin, et al., Oct 13, 1987)

Abstract

A system for assessing psychobiological conditions of a subject utilizes a plurality of words which are selected to be in four categories as critical stimuli. The words are presented by a tachistoscope to the subject in subliminal and supraliminal modes of operation. Subliminal stimulation of the subject is achieved by presenting the selected words for an exposure period of approximately one millisecond. The supraliminal exposure time is approximately thirty milliseconds. Prior to stimulation, the subject is diagnosed in accordance with conventional psychoanalytical techniques to establish the presence and nature of a pathological condition. The words are selected and categorized in four groups: pleasant words, unpleasant words, words related to a diagnosed conscious pathological condition, and words related to a diagnosed unconscious pathological condition. The brain wave responses which are evoked by the stimulation are collected via electrodes and analyzed in accordance with a transinformation technique which is based on information signal theory for establishing a probabilistic value which corresponds to the information content of the evoked responses.

Notes:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to systems for examining brain wave responses to stimulation of a subject, and more particularly to a system wherein evoked potentials responsive to selected critical verbal stimuli are analyzed mathematically to establish a probabilistic value corresponding to the information content of the evoked signal responses.

It has long been proposed that the unconscious mind is psychologically meaningful in that there exists a psychic continuity whereby seemingly discontinuous psychological patterns are actually continuous, but certain psychological events are unknown and in the unconscious. It has therefore been reasoned that the existence of an unconscious must be assumed in psychoanalysis, but methods other than the clinical methods of psychoanalysis must be employed to demonstrate the unconscious. The experimental stimulus used in some experimental efforts to demonstrate the unconscious is a picture of a pen pointing at a knee. By tracing the conceptual associations of pen and knee, by words such as "ink," "paper," "foot," and "leg," rational, secondary process thinking was sampled. However, if clang associations were to be traced, then the experiment would be sampling primary process ideation. Examples of such clangs would be "pennant pennant," "happen," "neither," and "any." Finally, two clangs can combine or condense to form a new word, "penny,"which is entirely unrelated in meaning to its components. Associations to this clang condensation can be traced in the form of words such as "coin," "nickel, " "Lincoln," etc. The penny combination is another level of primary-process ideation based on the fact that the stimulus is a pictorial representation of a word, or a rebus, one of the oldest forms of writing and closely allied to dream thinking. Aside from the theoretical relevance of the stimulus, it has the technical advantage of involving no clinical judgment in scoring. Lists of associations based on normative data can be used by assistants with an error rate which is consistently less than 3%.
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Although the invention has been described in terms of specific embodiments and applications, persons skilled in the art can, in light of this teaching, generate additional embodiments without exceeding the scope or departing from the spirit of the claimed invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the drawing and descriptions in this disclosure are proffered to facilitate comprehension of the invention and should not be construed to limit the scope thereof.