Effects of Auditory and Tactile Stimulus Presentation on the Manual and Heart-Rate Responses of a Youth With Severe Brain Disabilities

126 ― The participant in the present study was a female student in her second year (11th grade) at a special education high school, who, as the result of an accident when she was in elementary school, had severe brain damage. Diagnoses had indicated that she had almost no vision, and that there was little possibility that her brainstem received auditory information. In addition, she had severe motor disabilities and trouble with spontaneous respiration and thermoregulation. The present study examined effects of the presentation of auditory and tactile stimuli on her manual and heart-rate responses, because if even minimal changes could be detected, she might have a basic means of communication. In the fırst 11 sessions, poetry was read aloud for 3 min, music was played for 4 min, her left foot and leg were massaged for 4 min, and fınally, music was combined with massage for 4 min. In the second 11 sessions, she was presented with poetry, music plus massage, music, and massage, in that order. The results showed that the mean frequency of her minimal manual responses increased during the presentation of music, massage, and music plus massage, and that the changes in the kind of stimulus presented were related to the changes in her heart rate. It is possible that she discriminated differences in the stimuli that were presented.