A Psychophysiology of Developmental Disabilities: A Personal and Historical Perspective

Abstract

In the early 1970s, as a curious young assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, my colleagues asked me to apply heart rate monitoring to study the intellectually impaired. Although many of my colleagues were dedicated to the study of developmental disabilities, this was a new area for me. The University of Illinois had a physical center and an administrative structure to expand the behavioral sciences into the study of typically and atypically developing children, and the Children’s Research Center was the epicenter of this research interest. The Center was headed by Bob Sprague and included several researchers—Steve Asher, Ann Brown, Joe Campione, Mark Gold, and Keith and Marcia Scott—who conducted research on mentally challenged children. The research conducted at the Center was well funded and was a high priority for both the State of Illinois and the National Institutes of Health. In retrospect, this was a special time and special place for the study of normal and atypical development. I recall one meeting in which approximately 35 faculty members across several departments and colleges on the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign campus self-identified as developmental psychologists. It was an optimistic time, and there were expectations that physiological monitoring would provide a portal to better understand individuals with limited language skills and cognitive resources. In the 1970s, the State of Illinois was committed to improving the quality of children with developmental disabilities. There were statefunded centers for treatment and research and state-funded research grants. For example, in Chicago, the state funded an intramural research program in a facility on the University of Illinois Medical School campus known as the Illinois State Pediatric Institute. This facility was located adjacent to another state-funded research program known as the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute. These large buildings housed basic and clinical researchers focused on understanding and improving the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and mental health disorders. During the mid-1970s, in this background of interest and enthusiasm for research to study atypical development, I received a grant from the State of Illinois, Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities to study heart rate patterns in ‘‘retarded and nonretarded’’ adolescents. To conduct this research, I borrowed from my colleague, Bob Sprague, a van that had been modified into a two-room research laboratory. With a graduate student, Mary Humphrey, and the help of a couple of talented undergraduates, we drove the van to local schools to collect the data. To do a simple study, we packed about 200 pounds of equipment into the van, including a Beckman Dynograph, an FM tape recorder, a 6-foot equipment rack containing relays programmed to display the stimulus via a slide projector and to record the responses through button presses, and a TV monitor and camera to reduce fear and uncertainty for the participants by enabling them to observe each other participating. The study resulted in a publication in the American Journal of Mental Deficiency (Porges & Humphrey, 1977), which was the former name of the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. What has changed in the decades since my paper with Mary and this issue of the Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities? From my perspective, there have been three major interrelated changes. First, in 1977, it would have been virtually impossible to find sufficient intellectual material on heart rate monitoring in special populations to fill an issue of any journal. In the mid-1970s, only a few researchers studied autonomic function in special populations. Most notable was Rathe Karrer. Rathe was a psychoAMERICAN JOURNAL ON INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES