[From Bruce Abbott (961004.0935 EST)]
Rick Marken (961003.1330) --
I am really sorry to hear that you suffer from asthma. I know from my wife's
experience that even a mild case (as she has) can be terribly frightening and
uncomfortable.
Thanks Rick, but no need to worry -- these days I rarely get more than a
stuffy nose and a bit of tightness in the chest from my allergies. Attacks
were more severe and frequent when I was in a child and living in lovely,
smoggy LA LA land. Linda has my sympathy, and Mary Powers, too. We all
belong to a rather large "club" we'd instantly resign from if given the chance.
Since the goal is to recognize early changes in lung state, why not have the
training involve tracking continuous changes in restriction? The "correct"/
"incorrect" approach might help a person develop a perceptual function that
allows discrimination of signal from noise when the signal is near threshold.
But it seems that it would really help if a person could monitor
continuous _changes_ in the perceptual variable that is relevant to
determining lung state.
Bill Powers (961003.1500 MDT) --
Another way would be to give the subject a handle that causes a
constriction. The task would be to keep the degree of constriction constant
at several different values (one at a time) while an independent disturbance
is added to the effects of the handle on the actual constriction. This
requires continuous sensing of the effect of the constriction, and
furthermore allows estimating the accuracy of the perception.
Nice suggestions -- if, indeed, the required perceptual signals are
detectable during the earliest stages when preventive action could be taken.
I can tell you that it's quite easy to detect the symptoms as an attack
begins. The question is whether the person can be trained to detect them
earlier (if they are even present then.) For those who have a _chronic_
problem, the current approach is to have them frequently test their lung
function using a device called a spirometer, which measures the maximum
exhallation rate as the person blows into the device. For these people,
there is always some degree of bronchial constriction unless treatment
(e.g., aerosol anti-inflammatory agents) is administered regularly. The
regular checks help them to determine whether additional doses are needed to
maintain control. However, those with less severe problems are unlikely to
go to the trouble of carrying a spirometer around with them and checking
their lung function regularly.
A good deal of effort is being expended to develop programs through which
seriously asthmatic children and adults can learn to manage their disease.
It's clearly a problem of establishing and maintaining control over the
symptoms, and in that respect might go under the heading of applied PCT.
I've been working on developing a couple of models of the necessary control
systems to help conceptualize what the requrirements are for good control,
the various ways control can fail, and what sorts of training might be
necessary for those whose control efforts have been unsuccessful.
Regards,
Bruce