Luscher Test Research Articles

Changes in the spatial organization of cortical rhythm vibrations in children under the influence of music

Changes is systemic brain activity under influence of classical music (minor and major music) were studied at two groups of healthy children aged 5-6 years (n = 53). In 25 of studied children the Luscher test showed increased level of anxiety which significantly decreased after music therapy sessions. Bioelectrical cortical activity registered from 20 unipolar leads was subjected to correlation, coherence and factor analysis. Also the dynamics of the power spectrum for each of the EEG was studied. According to EEG all children after listening to both minor and major tones showed reorganization of brain rhythm structure accompanied by a decrease in the level of coherence and correlation of EEG; also was found significant and almost universal decrease in the EEG power spectrum. Registered EEG changes under the influence of classical music seems to reflect a decrease in excess of "internal tension" and weakening degree of "stiffness" to ensure the activity of cerebral structures responsible for mechanisms of "basic integration" which maintain constant readiness of brain to rapid and complete inclusion in action.

Adaptation level as the basic health status characteristics: possibilitics of its assessment and forecasting of desadaptation violations.

On the basis of comprehensive survey with integrative assessment of health state (medical history data, physical examination, anthropometry, battery of psychological tests (Eysenck, Shmishek’s Personality Inventory (teen version), tapping - test by E.P. Ilyin, children's questionnaire of neuroses; test for rapid assessment of health, activity and mood, anxiety diagnosis by Spielberg - Khanin; Luscher test, color relations test) level of adaptation was defined in 236 children from orphanages aged from 4 to 18 years. The manifestations of maladjustment were registered both on psychological level (neuroticism, high anxiety, decreased performance, activity and psychological endurance, sleep disturbance, presence of accentuation and neurotic disorders) and somatic level (recurrent acute respiratory infections, poor physical development, exacerbation of chronic foci of infection and burdened biological history); this summarizes conclusions on a low level of health status of children in orphanages. The author has developed mathematical models of adaptation assessment and prediction of desadaptation, which allowed to identify children at risk for the development of adaptation disorders and children with maladjustment; according to the level and severity of maladaptive disorders correction programs are designed.

Correlation of etho-social and psycho-social data from “Mars-500” interplanetary simulation

Studies of social groups under isolation and confinement for the needs of space psychology were mostly limited by questionnaires completed with batteries of subjective tests, and they needed to be correlated with video recordings for objective analyses in space ethology. The aim of the present study is to identify crewmembers׳ behavioral profiles for better understanding group dynamics during a 520-day isolation and confinement of the international crew (n=6) participating to the “Mars-500” interplanetary simulation. We propose to correlate data from PSPA (Personal Self-Perception and Attitudes) computerized test, sociometric questionnaires and color choices test (Luscher test) used to measure anxiety levels, with data of video analysis during group discussion (GD) and breakfast time (BT). All the procedures were implemented monthly – GD, or twice a month – BT. Firstly, we used descriptive statistics for displaying quantitative subjects׳ behavioral profiles, supplied with a software based-solution: the Observer XT®. Secondly, we used Spearmen׳s nonparametric correlation analysis. The results show that for each subject, the level of non-verbal behavior (“visual interactions”, “object interactions”, “body interaction”, “personal actions”, “facial expressions”, and “collateral acts”) is higher than the level of verbal behavior (“interpersonal communication in Russian”, and “interpersonal communication in English”). From the video analyses, dynamics profiles over months are different between the crewmembers. From the correlative analyses, we found highly negative correlations between anxiety and interpersonal communications; and between the sociometric parameter “popularity in leisure environment” and anxiety level. We also found highly significant positive correlations between the sociometric parameter “popularity in working environment” and interpersonal communications, and facial expressions; and between the sociometric parameter “popularity in leisure environment “ and interpersonal communications, and facial expressions. As a whole, the findings show high importance of ethological investigations with video monitoring for assessment of group behavior in extreme environment. At the same time, correct interpretation of the video recording results requires their comparison with the results of classical socio-psychological methods. We discuss about the different approaches: objective vs. subjective; active vs. discursive; exhaustive vs. restrictive; descriptive vs. introspective.

THE FORMATION OF ENTS ADAPTIVE REACTIONS DEPENDING ON THE TYPE OF PSYCHO-VEGETATIVE REGULATION

The purpose of the students (12 to 15 years old) examination was to identify the integrative criteria of assessing the nature of the functional relationships between the parameters of the psychosocial and physiological adaptation of students, depending on age, individual-typological peculiarities of vegetative regulation, personal potential at different stages of school education. The study of the characteristics of vegetative regulation of the cardiovascular system was made with a help of an automatic cardiac-rhythm programs. The research of psychophysiological parameters was fulfiled using an automatic complex. The measurement of the speed of simple visual-motor reaction (PSMR), reaction to a moving object (WFD), the level of functional mobility of nervous processes (WFP) and health brain (DDM) were made before. Features psychosocial adaptation was analyzed using 8-color Luscher test. All examinee were divided into three groups on the basis of the statistical characteristics of the cardiac rhythm by the tone source autonomic tone: “vagotonia” (with a predominance of parasympathetic sistems), “somatotonic” (with domination of the sympatholytic effects), “atonic” (balanced type of vegetative nervous system). Based on the analysis of psychodynamic, neurodynamic and vegetative functions showed that students with initial vagotonies tone are characterized by high levels of situational and personal anxiety, low psychosocial adaptation, decreased activity of neurodynamic functions and psychodynamic processes in the learning dynamics, whereas the individuals with dominance of sympatotonics type regulation have high level of neurodynamic processes, psychosocial adaptation, against the background of significant stress mechanisms of vegetative regulation. Students with initial vegetative tone demonstrate a sufficient level of psychosocial adaptation, activity psychodynamic and neuromotor processes, accompanied by the preservation of the functionality of the body according to the parameters myocardial-hemodynamic homeostasis. It is established that the formation process of psychosocial and physiological adaptation and disadaptation of students is largely determined by the type of vegetative (autonomic) tone, degree of stress, behaviour strategies in stressful situations.

Clinical features of depressive disorders in patients with brain tumors.

The aim of the study was to examine the structure of psychopathology and clinical features of depressive disorders in patients with brain oncopathology. Polymorphic mental disorders of various clinical content and severity in most cases not only are comorbid to oncological pathology of the brain, but most often are the first clinical signs of early tumors. The study was conducted using the following methods: clinical psychiatric, questionnaire Simptom Check List- 90 -Revised-SCL- 90 -R, Luscher test and mathematical processing methods. Sample included 175 patients with brain tumors with non-psychotic level of mental disorders. The peculiarities of mental disorders and psychopathological structure of nonpsychotic depressive disorders have been a clinical option of cancer debut in patients with brain tumors. We found that nonpsychotic depression is characterized by polymorphism and syndromal incompletion; this causes ambiguity of diagnoses interpretation on stages of diagnostic period. Features of depressive symptoms depending on the signs of malignancy / nonmalignancy of brain tumor were defined.

Metabolic characteristics of brain structures during conscious and unconscious anxiety

Metabolic processes accompanying conscious and unconscious anxiety states in patients with multiple sclerosis were studied. The correspondence between glucose metabolism rates (evaluated using positron emission tomography images) and indices of conscious and unconscious anxiety (according to the Taylor and Luscher test scores) was estimated. Data on the specific features of brain activity at various levels of conscious and unconscious anxiety were obtained. The elevation of conscious anxiety was accompanied by an increase in the metabolic activity of the left-hemisphere cortical and subcortical structures, as well as by a decrease in the glucose metabolism rate in the majority of right-hemisphere structures (except limbic and thalamic structures). The elevation of unconscious anxiety was accompanied by a decrease in the rate of glucose metabolism in the left frontal structures, whereas in the amygdala, as well as in the other limbic structures (gyrus temporalis inferior), its rate increased.

Changes in Psychological and Physiological Parameters in Girls during the Individual Annual Cycle

Female students (N = 538) of the medical academy and the pedagogical college were psychophysiologically examined in different periods of the individual annual cycle (IAC), which lasts from one birthday to the next, with color, individual minute, and mental arithmetic tests. In addition, heart rhythm variation (HRV), anxiety, number of iris nerve rings, creativity, extroversion/introversion, and salivary cortisol were established, and integral stress reactivity (SR) and psychoemotional stress (PES) indices were calculated. It was found that the lowest anxiety, uneasiness, cortisol, diastolic arterial pressure during the mental arithmetic test, total deviation from the autogenous norm (Luscher's test), SR, and PES were observed in the first trimester (IAC months I–III). On the contrary, the fourth trimester (IAC months X–XII) was characterized by a decrease in extroversion and HRV and an increase in cortisol, anxiety, uneasiness, stress reactivity, and PES. Along with this, the fourth trimester differed from the other IAC periods in that students had the greatest total creativity score, which was considered as a compensatory phenomenon.