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Biomedical subjects

C Caltagirone

Publications and source records attributed to C Caltagirone.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Contralateral and ipsilateral tactile extinction in patients with right and left focal brain damage.

Heilman has suggested that right hemisphere lesions produce neglect both in the spaces contralateral and ipsilateral to the damaged hemisphere. To test this hypothesis, we studied the incidence of contralateral and ipsilateral tactile extinctions in 44 right and 59 left brain-damaged patients, by means of a standard test of a double tactile simultaneous stimulation of symmetrical and asymmetrical parts of the two sides of the body and of ipsilateral body parts. Results did not confirm Heilman's hypothesis; while contralateral tactile extinction was more frequent and severe in right than in left brain-damaged patients, no hemispheric difference was found when the number of ipsilateral extinctions was taken into account. Furthermore, ipsilateral tactile extinction was significantly related to aspecific factors (such as age, severity of sensorimotor impairment and widespread mental deterioration), irrespective of the hemispheric side of lesion.

Brain Diseases↗
PubMed1988

Spontaneous facial expression of emotions in brain-damaged patients.

Spontaneous facial expression of emotion was studied in two groups of right (N = 23) and left (N = 39) brain-damaged patients and in a control group of normal subjects (N = 28). To elicit emotions four short movies, constructed to produce positive, negative or neutral emotional responses, were used. The method used to assess the facial expression of emotions was the Facial Action Coding System. Brain-damaged patients showed less facial responses to emotional stimuli than normal controls, but no difference was observed between subjects with right and left-sided lesions either with global or disaggregated data analyses, inconsistent with the hypothesis of a specialization of the right hemisphere for facial emotional expressions. An unexpected difference was observed in response to the unpleasant movie. Both normal controls and left brain-damaged patients often averted their gaze from the screen when unpleasant material was displayed, whereas right brain-damaged patients rarely showed gaze aversion. This finding suggests that the degree of emotional involvement or manner of coping with stressful input may be reduced as a result of right brain damage.

Affect↗
PubMed1987

Imitation of facial movements in brain damaged patients.

The imitation of a large repertoire of upper and lower facial actions was requested from a group of left, right brain damaged and control subjects in order to explore: (1) if a left or right hemispheric focal lesion produces a similar pattern of impairment on this task; (2) if the impairment is associated with oral apraxia. The results show that left and right brain damaged patients score significantly lower than controls but the two pathologic groups do not differ from each other. The imitation of facial movements is not related in any way to oral apraxia and no specific localization of the lesion seems responsible for the impairment in this task. It is suggested that the control of facial movements might have a multiple representation in either hemisphere.

Apraxias↗
PubMed1986

Focal brain lesions and intelligence: a study with a new version of Raven's Colored Matrices.

Contrasting results have been obtained in previous investigations, which have used the standard version of Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices for studying the effects of localized brain lesion on visual-spatial intelligence. Some of these discrepancies might be due to the fact that specific factors, such as unilateral spatial neglect, could contribute to decreased performance obtained on Raven's test by patients with focal brain lesions. A new set of Colored Matrices, devised to minimize the influence of unilateral spatial neglect without changing the essential features of the original task, was therefore constructed. The test was administered to 76 normal controls, 74 right brain-damaged patients, 87 aphasics, and 61 nonaphasic left brain-damaged patients, in order to study the effect of laterality of lesions and of language impairment on Raven's scores. The results show that, if the influence of unilateral spatial neglect is minimized and Raven's scores are corrected in reference to age, educational level, and lesion size, then: no significant differences are observed between right and left brain-damaged patients; aphasics score worse than nonaphasic left brain-damaged patients; impairment is greater in patients with Wernicke's and Global aphasia (i.e., in patients with severe language comprehension disorders) than in patients classified as Broca's, Anomic, or Conduction aphasia; impairment is greater in patients with semantic-lexical discrimination errors than in patients free from semantic-lexical comprehension disorders.

Aphasia↗
PubMed1986

Methisoprinol in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. A pilot study.

Twenty-five patients affected by remittent form of multiple sclerosis (MS) were treated with methisoprinol for a period of 2 years. The clinical parameters, recorded during a 2-year observation period preceding onset of therapy, were compared with the analogous measures recorded during treatment. Treatment was associated with significant favourable changes. In fact, there were observed: a reduction in mean annual relapse rate for 22 of 25 patients; an improvement in the clinical status as demonstrated by the reduction of the Kurtzke Disability Status Scale values obtained in 14 of 25 patients; a reduction in the mean period of standard corticosteroid therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Cognitive improvement in clinical trials with nootropic drugs: when can it be expected and how to clarify its meaning.

In order to have a correct evaluation of the activity of a nootropic drug, the criteria adopted for the choice of patients to be included in the clinical trials and the methods used to clarify the meaning of changes observed on cognitive tasks are reported. The results of a clinical trial with the nootropic oxiracetam carried out in line with the above-mentioned criteria and methods are related.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1985

Dementia in Parkinson's disease: possible specific involvement of the frontal lobes.

We carried out a neuropsychological study on cognitive impairment in 57 subjects affected by idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (PD) and 32 subjects affected by Alzheimer's Disease (AD). First, we found two different subgroups of Parkinsonian patients, the first one with and the second without dementia. We clearly identified these two distinct subclinical entities regardless of mean age, age of onset, duration of treatment; on the contrary, the type of treatment seems to play a specific role in the appearance of dementia in PD, anticholinergics being assumed almost exclusively by demented Parkinsonian patients. Second, we observed two main differences for cognitive impairment between PD with dementia and AD. In fact, cognitive impairment is consistently more evident in Alzheimer patients than in Parkinsonian ones with dementia; in addition, demented Parkinsonians show a pattern of impairment similar to that exhibited by patients affected by frontal lobe lesions. This result supports neuroanatomical and neurochemical data on the involvement of the whole dopaminergic system in PD and the role played by the ventromedial tegmental area projecting to the frontal cortex in causing cognitive dysfunction in this disease.

Aged↗
PubMed1985

[The pattern of neuropsychologic compromise in patients with Parkinson disease].

We carried out a neuropsychological study on cognitive impairment in 57 subjects affected by idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (P.D.) and 32 subjects affected by Alzheimer's Disease (A.D.). First, we found two different subgroups of parkinsonian patients, the first one with dementia and the second one without dementia. We clearly identified these two distinct subclinical entities regardless of mean age, age of onset, duration of treatment; on the contrary, the type of treatment seems to play a specific role on the appearance of dementia in P.D., anticholinergics being assumed almost exclusively by demented parkinsonian patients (chi square c. Yates = 422; p less than 0.05). Second, we showed two distinct patterns of cognitive impairment between P.D. with dementia and A.D. In fact, cognitive impairment is consistently more evident in Alzheimer patients than in parkinsonian ones with dementia; in addition, demented parkinsonians show a pattern of impairment similar to that exhibited by patients affected by frontal lobe lesions. This result supports neuroanatomical and neurochemical data on the involvement of the whole dopaminergic system in P.D. and the role played by the ventro-medial tegmental area projecting to the frontal cortex. In conclusion, our study, identifying a specific pattern of cognitive impairment in P.D., well-differenciated from demented patients of different aetiology, suggests beneficial effects with dopaminergic agonists in these patients; in fact, these agents, acting on the second neuron, may stimulate the prefrontal region that is probably involved in the cognitive impairment of parkinsonian patients.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1984

Speech suppression without aphasia after bilateral perisylvian softenings (bilateral rolandic operculum damage).

The authors describe a patient who suffered two successive, right and left, strokes that caused bilateral rolandic operculum damage. The clinical picture was characterized by selective impairment of volitional facio-pharyngo-glosso-masticatory movements with sparing of automatic and reflex motor activity (Foix-Chavany-Marie syndrome). Though completely speechless, the patient was not aphasic. This dissociation is discussed in the light of the peculiar localization of lesions evidenced by CT-scan.

Cerebral Infarction↗
PubMed1983

Drawing objects from memory in aphasia.

The ability of aphasic patients to draw from memory objects with a characteristic shape has been investigated. Their capacity to reproduce the form of real objects was studied by showing them for a short time line drawings of simple objects. When the patient had analysed and recognized the figure, the model was hidden from view and the subject was asked to draw the same object from memory. This Drawing from Memory task was administered to 54 aphasics, 67 patients with right hemisphere lesions, 44 nonaphasic left brain-damaged patients and 23 normal controls. The influence of visuoconstructive disabilities was controlled by administering to the same patients a standard test for constructional apraxia (copying 10 geometrical figures). The severity and clinical form of the aphasia and the presence of semantic-lexical impairment at the receptive level were also examined in the aphasic patients. The following results were obtained. (1) Aphasic patients scored significantly less well than the control groups on the Drawing from Memory task and the intergroup differences became greater when the scores from the test for constructional apraxia were included by an analysis of covariance. (2) No significant correlation was detected between the severity and clinical form of the aphasia and the scores obtained on the Drawing from Memory task. (3) There was a significant correlation between impaired drawing from memory and disruption at the semantic-lexical level of language integration.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Acute administration of individual optimal dose of physostigmine fails to improve mnesic performances in Alzheimers Presenile Dementia.

Eight patients affected by Alzheimer's Presenile Dementia (AD) received acute administration of physostigmine individual optimal dose per os (n = 4) or subcutaneously (n = 4). The individual physostigmine dose was assessed by means of serum cholinesterase activity monitoring. The possible beneficial effects after treatment were evaluated by using two memory tests: Reys' 15 words and Digit Span from Wechsler memory scale. Although a slight behavioral activation was noted in all patients after treatment, the comparison between mean scores obtained by AD patients in mnesic tests before and after the acute physostigmine administration, with either therapeutic modality, failed to reach the level of statistical significance. Some implications of these disappointing results are briefly discussed.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1982

Neurophysiological study of normal pressure hydrocephalus.

A neuropsychological Mental Deterioration Battery (MDB) was used to identify deterioration profiles of 43 patients afflicted with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) (n = 18) or other forms of dementia (n = 25). The NPH patients submitted to a shunt-intervention (n = 10) were also evaluated after surgery. A comparison of profiles, obtained from the experimental and control groups, shows that NPH patients seem to be more impaired in tests designed to detect frontal lobe involvement. Some implications of the relatively greater impairment of frontal functions in NPH dementia are discussed.

Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunts↗
PubMed1982

Oral administration of chronic physostigmine does not improve cognitive or mnesic performances in Alzheimer's presenile dementia.

Physostigmine was administered orally 1 mg q.i.d. for one month to 8 patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's presenile dementia. The possible beneficial effects of the drug were evaluated by means of a neuropsychological battery administered to all patients before and after treatment. The performances obtained by demented patients on retest did not show any difference in comparison with performances obtained on the first neuropsychologic assessment. Some implications of these negative results are briefly discussed.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1981

Contiguity versus similarity paraphasic substitutions in Broca's and in Wernicke's aphasia.

The present research was carried out to determine whether Jakobson's claim that Broca's aphasic patients emit chiefly semantic paraphasias of the similarity type, whereas Wernicke's aphasic patients produce mainly paraphasic substitutions of the contiguity type, can be supported by data gathered for clinical purposes under controlled conditions. Semantic paraphasias produced by 96 aphasic patients on a standard test of visual naming were taken into account. Three independent judges, blind to aphasia type, classified all responses retained as semantic substitutions into one of the following four categories: those having 1) a strong similarity, 2) a strong contiguity, 3) a mild similarity, and 4) a mild contiguity relation to the correct word. No relationship was found between type of semantic paraphasias and clinical form of aphasia. Furthermore, irrespective of the clinical form of aphasia, aphasics tend to give more similarity substitutions than contiguity substitutions.

Anomia↗
PubMed1981

The relationship between type of naming error and semantic-lexical discrimination in aphasic patients.

When submitted to confrontation naming tasks, aphasic patients show different types of naming errors: phonetic, phonemic and verbal-semantic paraphasias, neologisms and anomia, but it is generally difficult to decide whether these errors are mainly due to a breakdown of the semantic systems or to post-lexical phonological disorders. In order to clarify this issue, 118 aphasic patients were given 3 tests of confrontation naming and 3 tests of semantic-lexical discrimination. Naming errors on confrontation were used to classify aphasic patients in various subgroups (according to the prevalence of a given type of naming error), whereas performances obtained on tests of semantic-lexical discrimination were taken as an index of disorganization of the semantic systems. The performances on semantic discrimination tests of patients showing a prevalence of phonetic, phonemic and verbal-semantic paraphasias, neologisms and anomia on confrontation naming tasks were compared. A very small number of semantic discrimination errors was obtained by patients showing a prevalence of phonetic and phonemic transformations on confrontation, whereas a much larger number of semantic discrimination errors was obtained by patients showing a prevalence of verbal-semantic paraphasias, neologisms and anomia.

Anomia↗
PubMed1981

Neuropsychological correlates of localized cerebral lesions in non-aphasic brain-damaged patients.

A neuropsychological test battery made up of verbal, visual-spatial, and intelligence tests was administered to 82 right and 67 on-aphasic left brain-damaged patients with localized cerebral lesions, in order to draw impairment profiles of the various subgroups. Separate analyses were undertaken on patients with unilobar and multilobar lesions. As for hemisphere effects, LH patients performed worse than RH subjects on verbal tests, while the reverse was true for visual-spatial tasks. As for lobe effects, patients with frontal lobe damage fared worse than other subgroups on word fluency, independent of the side of the lesion. RH patients with multilobar posterior lesions were significantly more impaired than other RH subgroups on the test of Copying Drawings with Landmarks, probably owing to the detrimental effect of unilateral spatial neglect on tasks requiring an accurate visual-spatial analysis.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗