Dennis P. Carmody

Rutgers School of Nursing · Nursing Science

Introduction: To evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the Beck Depression Inventory - Second Edition (BDI-II) with an ethnically diverse sample of college students. Methods: The BDI-II was completed by a group of 502 college students (54% women) with an ethnic distribution of African-American (n=49, 10%), Asian-American (n =33, 7%), Hispani...

Chest films were inspected by staff and resident radiologists for lung nodules under two viewing conditions: segmented search, in which films were divided into six sections and viewed piecemeal, and global search, in which the complete film was presented and viewed in its entirety. Nodules varied in edge gradient from sharp to fuzzy. Nodules with s...

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain activation patterns were examined in response to hearing one's own first name in contrast to hearing the names of others. There are several regions in the left hemisphere that show greater activation to one's own name, including middle frontal cortex, middle and superior temporal cortex, and cuneus...

A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was performed on a 4-year-old girl with autism. While sedated, she listened to three utterances (numbers, hello, her own first name) played through headphones. Based on analyses of the fMRI data, the amount of total brain activation varied with the content of the utterance. The greatest volume of...

This chapter has two goals: to provide the reader with a general awareness of traumatic brain injury (TBI), mild in particular, and the multiple complex issues involved in this area, and to offer a detailed understanding of the role of quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) in the assessment and treatment of the cognitive defi cits of the TBI p...

Purpose: This study examined factors associated with healthcare providers' (HCPs') recommendation of HPV vaccination for younger and older adolescents. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, using web-based survey of HCPs in New Jersey in 2018. The study outcome was a dichotomous measure of HCPs' recommendation of the HPV vaccine. The study pred...

Background: Previously published findings from a study of university students living in substance use disorder (SUD) recovery housing showed an eight-session heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) intervention significantly reduced craving. That study, however, uncovered pronounced inter-participant variability in craving change patterns throug...

Objectives this case-control study compared levels of stress and allostatic load (AL) among Mexican women in the US ( n =19) and Mexico ( n = 40). Method measures of stress included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Hispanic Women’s Social Stressor Scale (HWSSS). A composite measure of 8 indicators of AL (systolic and diastolic blood pressu...

Objectives: this case-control study compared levels of stress and allostatic load (AL) among Mexican women in the US (n =19) and Mexico (n = 40). Method: measures of stress included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Hispanic Women’s Social Stressor Scale (HWSSS). A composite measure of 8 indicators of AL (systolic and diastolic blood pressur...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine pathways through which childhood abuse increases the risk of cervical cancer, including smoking, stress, risky sexual behavior, and not having a Papanicolaou (Pap) test. Materials and methods: This is a descriptive, correlational study. The sample included 410 women, recruited from a large, multi...

Background: The limited success of conventional anticraving interventions encourages research into new treatment strategies. Heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB), which is based on slowed breathing, was shown to improve symptom severity in various disorders. HRVB, and certain rates of controlled breathing (CB), may offer therapeutic potential...

Approach behavior, defined as differences in behavior to an incentive event and anger at its removal, was assessed during contingency learning in 87 5-month olds was related to maternal ratings of mastery behaviors at 2 years. Mothers reported on infants' concurrent temperament, as well as the occurrence of anger and tantrums, and their own anger a...

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Adolescents Exposed Prenatally to Drugs. Paper presented at the symposium “Advances in Imaging and Genomics: Innovative Research Technologies to Bridge Bench to Bedside”, sponsored and organized as the 3rd Annual UMDNJ Inter-School Technology Symposium, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Pis...

A B S T R A C T Systematic reviews are carried out to provide an answer to a clinical question based on all available evidence (published and unpublished), to critically appraise the quality of studies, and account for and explain variations between the results of studies. The Joanna Briggs Institute specializes in providing methodological guidance...

The human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a known risk factor for the development of several cancers. According the CDC, between 2004 and 2008, there was a national average of 33,369 HPV-associated cancers annually, including cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal, and oropharyngeal cancers. There are pervasive disparities in national morbidity...

We examined the prevalence and correlates of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine initiation among adolescents in low-income, urban areas. The study consisted of electronic health record data on HPV vaccination for 3180 adolescents (aged 10-20 years) at a multisite community health center in 2011. Only 27% initiated the HPV vaccine. The adjusted odds...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and correlates of HPV vaccine completion and dosing intervals among adolescents in low-income, urban areas. METHOD: The study included 2011 electronic health record data on HPV vaccination for 872 adolescents who have received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine at a multi-site comm...

PURPOSE: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination continues to lag behind other adolescent vaccines, especially in areas with predominantly minority, low-income populations and pervasive disparities in HPV-related cancers. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and correlates of HPV vaccine initiation among adolescents in low-income,...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) and pubertal development. Children (n=192; 41% with PCE) completed the Pubertal Development Scale (Petersen et al. 1988) and provided salivary dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) samples at 6month intervals from 11 to 13years. PCE was examined as a pr...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination continues to lag behind other adolescent vaccines, especially in areas with pervasive disparities in HPV-related cancers. The purpose of this study was to examine HPV vaccine completion and dosing intervals among low-income adolescents in urban areas. The study included electronic health record data on HPV vac...

The quantitative EEG (QEEG) has proven to be an important methodology in the understanding of brain functioning. The Coordinated Allocation of Resource (CAR) model maintains that cognitive effectiveness depends on the employment of a specific set of resources for specific cognitive tasks, which overlap in some situations. The model employs the flas...

The quantitative EEG (QEEG) has proven to be an important methodology in the understanding of brain functioning. The Coordinated Allocation of Resource (CAR) model maintains that cognitive effectiveness depends on the employment of a specific set of resources for specific cognitive tasks, which overlap in some situations. The model employs the flas...

In 2010 many children continue to be exposed prenatally to drugs as a substantial minority of mothers reported alcohol (10.8%), cigarette (16.3%), and illicit drug (4.4%) use during pregnancy [1]. Children exposed prenatally to maternal cocaine use have shown deficits in intelligence, attention, and inhibitory control [2-3]. Males may be particular...

Objective: To examine whether prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) predicts externalizing problems in late childhood. Methods: Externalizing problems were assessed using caregiver, teacher, and child ratings and a laboratory task when children (N = 179; 74 cocaine exposed) were aged 8-10 years. PCE, environmental risk, sex, neonatal health, other pre...

Children prenatally exposed to tobacco exhibit higher rates of learning and emotional-behavioral problems related to worse working memory performance. Brain function, however, among tobacco exposed children while performing a working memory task has not previously been examined. This study compared the brain function of tobacco-exposed (n = 7) and...

The coordination of allocation resource model of brain functioning examines the relations between quantitative EEG (QEEG) variables and cognitive performance on specific tasks. The Digit Symbol (DS) subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales has proven to be a sensitive measure in a variety of clinical conditions. A conceptually and empirica...

Discusses the electrophysiology of traumatic brain injury with data from QEEG studies

It is important to understand the relation between changes in the quantitative EEG (QEEG) variables and memory changes as a result of the EEG biofeedback treatment. With this goal in mind, the senior author reviewed his clinical files from the last 5 years and examined the QEEG data addressing relative power and coherence changes and memory (audito...

In order to examine the roles of mental age, social interaction, and communication in self-representation abilities, typically-developing children were compared with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Typically-developing children (TD, n = 66) and children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD, n = 20), including subgroups of autistic disorder...

Children with ASD have considerable difficulties in imitation, pretend play, emotional regulation, communication, and social interaction. In our work with typically developing children we have found that by two years of age children have self referential behavior. By this we mean that typically developing children have the mental representation of...

Malingering is a form of deception in which one fakes illness to earn (positive or negative) reinforcement. The purpose of the current research was to explore the ability of naïve participants to malinger distress on a clinical, projective measure (Draw-A-Person; DAP). In two experiments, individuals first drew figures of a man, woman, and self. Th...

A .mp4 file - 23 minutes; audio and slides

In this pilot study the severity of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was associated with alterations in white matter development. Children with ASD and without ASD were assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for their myelination development on a regional basis. Measures were obtained in medial frontal cortex, temporal poles, and temporo-parie...

To explore whether punitive parenting styles contribute to early-acquired emotion knowledge deficits observable in neglected children, we observed 42 preschool children's emotion knowledge, expression recognition time, and IQ. The children's mothers completed the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales to assess the recent use of three types of discip...

The relations between the emotions and the brain’s functioning have been the subject of scientific investigation over the past decade. This report continues this investigation in a single case study that required the subject to evoke different emotional states (happiness, love, depression) and rate the emotional states on an intensity scale while b...

Purpose: We examined the relations between left frontal EEG asymmetry, contingency learning and anger in response to goal blockage. Methods: Contingency/Goal Block Procedure: Children (N = 25; 4-months old) received 2 minutes of baseline, 6 minutes of contingency and 2 minutes of no stimulation (blockage) on each of two days, seven days apart. To...

Children prenatally exposed to tobacco have been found to exhibit increased rates of behavior problems related to response inhibition deficits. The present study compared the brain function of tobacco-exposed (n = 7) and unexposed (n = 11) 12-year-olds during a Go/No-Go response inhibition task using an event-related functional MRI (fMRI) design. P...

Interventions for improvement of cognitive problems in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) include electroencephalography biofeedback, also known as neurofeedback. Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) patterns are assessed in TBI patients and then compared to a database obtained from a normative population. Deviations in QEEG patterns...

Background. Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) databases have been developed for the eyes closed (EC) condition. The development of a cognitive activation database is a logical and necessary development for the field. Method. Brain activation was examined by QEEG during several tasks including EC rest, visual attention (VA), auditory attent...

Disgust elicits a broad emotional response, including disgust, anger, sadness, and fear and varying individual differences in the emotional experience. The present study related individual differences in the experience of disgust to brain localization and the spectral frequency content of generators. Ratings of disgust on disgust pictures were sepa...

This study examined the relation between self-representation and brain development in infants and young children. Self-representation was assessed by mirror recognition, personal pronoun use, and pretend play. Structural brain images were obtained from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Brain development was assessed by a quantitative measure of mat...

The onset of cognitive rehabilitation brought with it a hope for an effective treatment for the traumatic brain injured subject. This paper reviews the empirical reports of changes in cognitive functioning after treatment and compares the relative effectiveness of several treatments including computer interventions, cognitive strategies, EEG biofee...

Discusses the development of inhibitory control with support from fMRI studies

The relations among early cumulative medical risk, cumulative environmental risk, attentional control, and brain activation were assessed in 15–16-year-old adolescents who were born preterm. Functional magnetic resonance imaging found frontal, temporal, and parietal cortex activation during an attention task with greater activation of the left supe...

To explore how youths malinger symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), college students completed the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) under standard instructions (honest condition). Then, after learning the symptomatology of traumatic stress, they completed the TSI a second time attempting to fake symptoms of PTSD (deception condition). M...

The application of electroencephalogram (EEG) biofeedback with reading disability and traumatic brain injury (TBI) is relatively recent. There are many studies regarding the effectiveness (improving attention and IQ scores) of EEG biofeedback in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who are known to have a high rate of comorbidity...

The objective of this study was to measure myelination of frontal lobe changes in infants and young children. Twenty-four cases of infants and children (age range 12-121 months) were evaluated by a quantitative assessment of T2-weighted MR image features. Reliable quantitative changes between white and gray matter correlated with developmental age...

The authors performed this study to assess the performance of a computer-based classification system that uses gaze locations of observers to define the subspace for machine learning. Thirty-two dental radiographs were classified by an expert viewer into four categories of disease of the periapical region: no disease (normal tooth), mild disease (w...

Abnormal spatial orientation and body postures in children with autism often interfere with visual abilities to attend tasks and social interactions. Twenty-four children diagnosed with autism from Kowloon, Hong Kong were assessed for spatial orientation and spatial management abilities. Positive changes in spatial orientation were evident when the...

Introduction: EEG biofeedback was conducted on site in an elementary school.Method: An experimental group of eight children ages 8-10 completed 35-47 sessions of EEG biofeedback training over a six-month period. Four participants in the experimental group were diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and four were not diagnose...

Electroencephalographic biofeedback, also known as neurofeedback, has been used to improve attention in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In the present case study, a ten-year-old boy completed 37 sessions of neurofeedback training over a six-month period on-site in a school setting. Beta brainwave training was applied...

An innocuous sensory event (a prestimulus) briefly preceding a startle-eliciting stimulus (SES) reduces the amplitude of the elicited reflex. This study used signal detection theory (SDT) techniques to quantify the effects of gaps (pauses in otherwise continuous noise) on the rat's acoustic startle reflex. Sixteen rats were given four identical tes...

An innocuous sensory event (a prestimulus) briefly preceding a startle-eliciting stimulus (SES) reduces the amplitude of the elicited reflex. This study used signal detection theory (SDT) techniques to quantify the effects of gaps (pauses in otherwise continuous noise) on the rat’s acoustic startle reflex. Sixteen rats were given four identical tes...

Autistic children often display abnormal postures, head tilts, and other spatial management dysfunctions. Methods were introduced to measure spatial orientation in tasks in a group of fourteen autistic children in Montreal, Canada. Ambient lenses were found to improve posture, correct head tilts, and improve ball catching abilities. A model of spat...

PURPOSE: To determine whether readers estimating the volume of cerebral lateral ventricles from MR images are more accurate when making comparative rather than absolute judgments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Brain MR images of 15 normal volunteers under age 40 were acquired using a 3-D gradient echo sequence which provides 63 contiguous slices with 3.1...

Abnormal saccadic intrusions for psychiatric patients during smooth pursuit tasks have been frequently reported in the literature. In this study, 26 schizophrenic, 23 affective, and 8 miscellaneous psychiatric inpatients were compared to 60 controls for smooth pursuit and convergence tracking abilities. Saccadic intrusions occurred far more frequen...

Visual perception was evaluated with standard tests for 26 hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, 23 hospitalized patients with affective disorders, and 60 control subjects. Both patient groups differed significantly from the control group on low amplitude of accommodation, esophoria or exophoria, vergence duction suppression, and convergence an...

Our objective was to assess whether or not a systematic review of mammographic descriptors would result in improved classifications of nonpalpable lesions of the breast and reductions of biopsies for benign conditions. The prelocalization mammograms of 200 consecutive patients who had 231 biopsies were reviewed in random order by four radiologists...

Left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) is a reliable indicator of the diastolic function of the left ventricle. The purpose of this study was to correlate the radiographic assessment of pulmonary hemodynamics with LVEDP. The study population consisted of 104 consecutive patients with four categories of LVEDP: less than 13 mm Hg (n = 26), 1...

The detectability of nodules displayed on uniform backgrounds was compared with their detectability on chest images by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The images were displayed using a digital television system. Two conditions, chest image and uniform background, were compared at three different levels of added random noise. T...

Radiology instructors and residents were surveyed for their methods of instruction concerning viewing techniques. A similar group of radiologists had their eye activity measured as they viewed chest images. Image reading techniques are taught to be systematic and directive with comparisons of bilateral features. Yet, most images are read by a free...

Eye movement studies have shown that during search for lung tumours radiologists tend to survey chest images by using a circumferential scanning pattern. At times this pattern includes local comparisons between suspected tumours and the normal features of the image. This study prevented such comparisons to determine their necessity. The results sup...

Detection of lung nodules contained in chest X-ray films was studied during both tachistoscopic presentation and free search. Lung nodules were first rated for their visibility against the anatomical background of the chest films. With tachistoscopic presentation, detection accuracy was influenced by rated visibility and by exposure durations up to...

One characteristic of the eye movement patterns of radiologists is comparative scans which consist of fixations on one area followed by movements to a second area and then immediately back to the original place. They are not always movements to the corresponding place on the opposite side but can also be diagonal or up and down. They seemed to be a...

Detection of small tumors in chest x-ray films was studied under tachistoscopic viewing conditions designed to simulate single fixations varying in dwell time, found in free search. Two questions were asked: How much dwell time is required to detect a nodule (experiment 1)? How effective are peripheral inputs in the detection of a nodule (experimen...

A computer system was developed to measure and record locus and duration of the eye axis of gaze using a limbus reflection technique. System hardware and operating procedures for on-line data collection and correction are described. Algorithms are presented that separate fixations from movements. Based on these algorithms, system performance was me...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Temple University, 1980. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-114).

Eye movements were measured as subjects searched for a word target embedded in line drawings. Time taken to find the target was directly related to the degree of embeddedness or target conspicuity. Detections were predicted by multiple-fixation clusters exceeding 400 msec within 3 deg of the target. Search errors resulted from faulty pattern recogn...