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Biomedical subjects

F Boller

Publications and source records attributed to F Boller.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Delayed auditory feedback and aphasia.

The effect of Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) was evaluated in three groups of subjects: 10 normal controls, 10 non-fluent aphasics, and 10 fluent aphasics. Speec production tasks consisted of (1) repeating sound and words; (2) naming objects; (3) producing sentences from given stimulus words; (4) answering questions; (5) reciting nursery rhymes; and (6) reading. Two delays were used, 180 and 360 msec. Two independent judges rated patients' responses for changes in intensity, duration, and quality of speech. Inter-judge reliability was considered satisfactory. Contrary to some previous reports, all subjects, including all the fluent aphasics, showed some DAF effect. Fluent aphasics, however, showed a significantly smaller DAF effect than non-fluent aphasics. Patient with conduction aphasia appeared to be the least impaired. Overall DAF effect was greater with 180 msec. than with 360 msec. The largest DAF effect occurred during answering question, followed by repeating, reading, nursery rhymes, sentence production, and naming, in that order. Repetition of a complex word produced a greater DAF effect than repetition of a simple sound. Finally, we found a differential effect of DAF on the three measures used in the study. We hypothesize that DAF effects result from changes in two separate monitoring systems. One systems is related to changes in the intensity of speech and does not appear to be affected by aphasia. The other is responsible for duration and qualitative changes in speech and is differentially affected in relation to pathology producing aphasia.

Adult↗

Johann Baptist Schmidt. A pioneer in the history of aphasia.

Wernicke is usually credited with the first significant description of comprehension disorders in aphasia. Before Wernicke, however, others had reported patients with impaired comprehension. This communication deals with one of those pioneer papers, that written by Schmidt, an obstetrician, in 1871. It concerns a 25-year-old woman who developed sudden language difficulty ten days after delivery. She had trouble understanding oral or written language. Through careful examination, Schmidt showed that she was neither deaf nor psychotic. He concludes his paper with a prediction of the area of the brain he suspected to be involved. Schmidt's paper represents an early, noteworthy effort to clarify the relations between brain and behavior.

Aphasia↗

Neuropsychological correlates of hypertension.

Twenty newly diagnosed, untreated hypertensive men (diastolic blood pressure greater than 105 mm Hg) and 20 normotensive controls were given a neuropsychological battery, including tests of generalized, more global functions (eg, reaction time and full-scale IQ) and of specific functions (eg, language and visual-spatial abilities) sensitive to focal damage. Tests of specific abilities yielded no differences between the two groups. In contrast, tests of general neuropsychological functioning revealed a deficit among hypertensives, who were significantly slower on the reaction time test and had a shorter span for digits in forward order. Results suggest that arterial hypertension is associated with impairment of vigilance and attention span. Future research will determine whether this impairment is associated with the diffuse pathological changes seen in the brain of hypertensive subjects, or with a more "functional" change (eg, reduced cerebral blood flow).

Attention↗

Familial idiopathic cerebral calcifications.

Nine members of a family spanning three generations showed bilateral calcifications of the basal ganglia with autosomal dominant inheritance. Two members developed chorea, dementia, and a characteristic speech disturbance (palialalia) in the third or fourth decade. A third member possibly shows the initial stage of a similar syndrome. Six members with calcifications but without neurological signs are younger than 25 years. All nine patients had normal calcium and phosphorus, and no evidence of endocrinological or somatic abnormalities. Thie 'isiopathic' picture must be differentiated from hypoparathyroidism and pseudohypoparathyroidism.

Adult↗

A different form of "pure agraphia": syntactic writing errors in a patients with motor speech and movement disorders.

Three patients are described who displayed syntactic writing errors in combination with a motor speech disturbance and impaired motor limb function. Two of the patients had bulbar amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Agraphia appeared when verbal communication was no longer possible. Autopsy in one patient disclosed only lesions consistent with ALS. The third patient had palilalia and chorea and although not aphasic, his written language showed persistent syntactic errors. We hypothesize that the agraphia in these patients occurred because of the combination of disordered feedback from the motor speech apparatus and limbs.

Adult↗

Response to delayed auditory feedback in patients with hemispheric lesions.

The effect of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) on the performance of verbal and nonverbal tasks at two levels of difficulty by patients with left or right hemispheric lesions and non brain-damaged controls was compared. All subjects showed DAF effects, as measured by increases in response duration and intensity. While controls showed an increase in DAF effects as a function of increased task difficulty, the brain-damaged patients failed to show such an increase on tasks on which they were presumably impaired (verbal tasks for lefts, nonverbal for rights). Findings suggest a clear dissociation between DAF effects in unilateraly lesioned patients due to the nature of the stimulus material and its difficulty level.

Aphasia↗

[Heterogeneity of ovine prolactin after labeling with iodine 125: value of labeling with lactoperoxidase].

The authors have shown an heterogeneity of the ovine prolactine molecule after labelling with iodine 125. As well with chloramine T as with lactoperoxydase, it appears three molecular species which react with the immune serum antiprolactine (I.S.). The first species is of high molecular weight and is probably constituted of aggregates. Their combination with the I.S. is non specific and give blanks of high value. The second species is a dimere and the third one is the monomere. The two last species react with the I.S. and can give competition curves when they are choosen as tracer. However, if one uses as tracer a product obtained by labelling with chloramine T, the competition appears for high concentrations of native hormone. As if the I.S. recognizes much more the labelled protein than the native one. But if one uses the same species but labelled with lactoperoxydase, the competition appears for concentrations lower than five nanogrammes. In the same time one can see that the specificity toward different I.S. is modified. The authors think that the labelling with lactoperoxydase better preserves the tertiary structure of the native protein than do the labelling with chloramine T.

Animals↗

Simple reaction time: evidence for focal impairment from lesions of the right hemisphere.

Simple reaction time is significantly increased in patients with unilateral lesions of either cerebral hemisphere responding with the hand ipsilateral to the lesion, but the effect is much greater when the lesion is in the non-dominant hemisphere. This difference cannot be attributed to asymmetries in the size or type of lesion. It applies over the complete distribution of reaction times as well as to the means, and is not diminished by practice. Neither the classical conduction model of reaction time nor the mass-action hypothesis proposed by De Renzi and Faglioni (1965) can account for the findings. Although the increase of about 100 ms observed with lesions of the dominant hemisphere probably represents a non-specific effect of brain disease, the much larger increases resulting from lesions of the non-dominant hemisphere appear to be of focal origin. The critical areas cannot yet be specified with certainty, but maps of the brain scans for patients with the highest reaction times suggest that structures in or near the basal ganglia and the posterior parietal region of the non-dominant hemisphere are involved, and other studies show that the focal effect is not found when patients with contralateral motor involvement are excluded.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Optic ataxia: clinical-radiological correlations with the EMIscan.

After coronary by-pass surgery, a 47 year old, right-handed man developed Gerstmann's syndrome, a visual-spatial perceptual deficit, and a gross impairment of movememt under visual guidance ("optic ataxia"). Visual fields and extraocular movements were intact; he had a left hemiparesis. The EMIscan showed three lesions: a left parietal-occipital lesion; a posterior callosal lesion, and a right frontal lesion. It is hypothesized that optic ataxia in both visual fields requires bilateral lesions which, in the present case, were strategically placed so as to effectively disconnect motor cortex from visual input.

Ataxia↗

Paroxysmal "nightmares". Sequel of a stroke responsive to diphenylhydantoin.

A 65-year-old man had nightmares a few weeks after a right temporal lobe infarction. Electroencephalography showed no epileptic activity. Therapy with diphenylhydantoin produced complete remission of his symptoms. On the bases of their acute onset, their association with sleep, their occasional occurrence while the patient was awake, the lack of effect of diazepam and flurazepam, and the good response to diphenylhydantoin, we propose that these episodes were partial seizures secondary to the right temporal lobe lesion.

Aged↗

Palilalia.

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Adult↗