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Biomedical subjects

F Fabbro

Publications and source records attributed to F Fabbro.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Encoding and recall of parsed stories in hypnosis.

To define the relationship between aspects of memory concerning encoding and recall of short texts and hypnosis, standardized stories were narrated to 12 subjects, both during ordinary state of consciousness and after hypnotic induction by means of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (Form C). The narrative material used as a stimulus was based on several stories taken from popular oral tradition, previously analyzed according to the classic criteria proposed by Rumelhart in 1975 and Mandler and Johnson in 1977. The subjects' memory performance during both experimental conditions was tape-recorded and compared with the analysis of the original stories (Terminal Nodes) as well as with the higher linguistic structures of the scheme (Basic Nodes), according to Rumelhart's typology. During hypnosis, the subjects recalled significantly fewer narrative elements at both levels of analysis (Terminal Nodes and Basic Nodes). We conclude that hypnosis does not enhance recent memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Thalamic amnesia following venous infarction: evidence from a single case study.

The present paper describes the case of a right-handed Italian-English bilingual male patient suffering from amnesia following a bilateral thalamic lesion due to venous infarction. Within a few months from the onset, the lesion gradually shrank and was finally confined to the left thalamus only, in particular to the antero-medial portion and the pulvinar. The mammillary bodies and the cortical areas of both hemispheres were spared. After the regression of a series of generalized cognitive deficits implying slow psychic activity confusion, and spatial and temporal disorientation, the patient presented a persistent amnesic syndrome with mild language disorders, both in Italian and in English. Major disorders of memory included a dissociation between verbal memory, which was severely impaired, and spatial memory, which was largely preserved.

Brain Ischemia↗
PubMed1996

Neurolinguistic and follow-up study of an unusual pattern of recovery from bilingual subcortical aphasia.

We report on the neuropsychological and neurolinguistic features of a bilingual patient, E.M., who presented with an uncommon pattern of aphasic deficit consequent to subcortical lesions mainly involving the left basal ganglia. Not only are reports of bilingual subcortical aphasia rare, but E.M.'s deficit is particularly uncommon for it concerns the most used mother tongue (Venetian) much more than a less practiced second language (standard Italian). In this patient, the linguistic deficit in mother tongue production has been observed in spontaneous speech and in cross language translation tasks, where an asymmetrical paradoxical performance has been revealed. Indeed, unlike neurologically intact subjects, E.M. has more difficulties when translating into her mother tongue than into her second language. Although E.M.'s mother tongue is prevalently an oral language, the asymmetrical translation pattern is similar in written and oral translation tasks, thus ruling out the possibility that the deficit simply reflects differences between written and oral language codes. Finally, another remarkable feature of E.M.'s impairment is its stability over almost 5 years from the stroke. We propose that this unusual type of recovery in E.M. is related to the higher degree of automatization of the first language with respect to the second one. This proposal fits with the role of basal ganglia in automatized motor and cognitive performance.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

Effects of hypnosis on the fundamental frequency of voice in different emotional imitations.

The modifications of human vocal fundamental frequency (fa) were studied in six emotional imitations of a sequence during normal and hypnotic conditions. In hypnosis the fundamental frequency was significantly lower than in the normal condition; in particular, in this altered state of consciousness two emotional imitations (angry and crying conditions) were significantly different with respect to the normal condition.

Emotions↗
PubMed1996

Effects of left basal ganglia lesions on language production.

Three patients with lesions mainly confined to the left basal ganglia were studied with a series of neuropsychological and neurolinguistic tests. Two patients were nonfluent, whereas one presented with fluent spontaneous speech. All of them produced agrammatic sentences and lexical and semantic mistakes. Perserverations and echolalias were two further characteristic disorders of their speech production. The linguistic symptoms observed in these three patients suggest that the left basal ganglia play an important role (a) in regulating arousal and speech initiation, (b) in monitoring the semantic and lexical aspects of language, and (c) in switching from one linguistic element to the following during language production.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

Delayed auditory feedback in polyglot simultaneous interpreters.

Twelve polyglot students of simultaneous interpretation and 12 controls (students of the faculty of Medicine) were submitted to a task of verbal fluency under amplified normal auditory feedback (NAF) and under three delayed auditory feedback (DAF) conditions with three different delay intervals (150, 200, and 250 msec). The control group showed a significant reduction in verbal fluency and a significant increase in the number of mistakes in all three DAF conditions. The interpreters' group, however, did not show any significant speech disruption neither in the subjects' mother tongue (L1) nor in their second language (L2) across all DAF conditions. Interpreters' general high verbal fluency along with their ability to pay less attention to their own verbal output make them more resistant to the interfering effects of DAF on speech.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Left and right in the Bible from a neuropsychological perspective.

Although in several neuropsychological works dealing with hemispheric specializations a few passages of the Bible referring to the left and the right have been mentioned now and then, a systematical study with a neuropsychological approach to this topic was still a missing link. By using concordance texts from the Bible books of the Hebrew Canon (Old Testament, OT) and from the New Testament (NT), all the verses containing any reference to the left and the right (OT = 151, NT = 49 verses) have been identified and classified into 10 groups: (1) references to space, (2) symmetric sayings, (3) the right hand is the favorite hand, (4) right eye preference, (5) God's right hand, (6) the right side is more prestigious, (7) the right side in liturgy, (8) left hand preference, (9) fatal left-hand shots, and (10) on the left side. Some statistical considerations have been put forward and a neuropsychological, anthropological approach has been suggested for the purpose of interpreting the most interesting verses. According to the author of the present paper, it would be worthwhile commenting on some texts of ancient and modern literature not only from a linguistic, historical, religious and theological point of view, but also by means of a neuropsychological approach.

Bible↗
PubMed1994

An Italian perspective on learning disabilities.

The authors' experience derives from over 10 years of study of the neuropsychological characteristics of children with learning disabilities (LD) who were referred to a public children's hospital. Some sociocultural and linguistic aspects of children with learning disabilities in Italy, and in particular in the northeastern Friuli-Venetia-Julia region, are described. The role of bilingualism and the type of grapheme-phoneme correspondence in "standard" Italian are discussed in relation to learning disabilities. Legislative aspects, the roles of the school, hospitals, public field services, and private institutes, as well as the concern of parents of children with LD, are alos taken into account. According to the authors, Italy's major deficiencies with respect to the question of learning disabilities are (a) lack of a systematic study of the problem in order to increase general knowledge, (b) insufficient training of teachers and rehabilitators, and (c) inadequate legislation.

Child↗
PubMed1994

Neurolinguistic differentiation of children with subtypes of dyslexia.

A detailed analysis of the types of childhood dyslexia proposed by Boder (1973) and Bakker (1990) revealed characteristic patterns of organization of intellectual functions, of hemispheric specialization, and of reading errors in right-handed children with dyslexia. Children with L-type dyslexia (10 subjects) evidenced a large number of reading errors (e.g., substitutions of nouns and verbs), low scores in verbal short-term memory, and right-ear advantage (REA) in dichotic listening. Children with P-dyslexia (18 subjects) evidenced few reading errors, a short attention span, low performance in visual-motor coordination (WISC-R coding), and an absence of REA in dichotic listening. Children with M-type dyslexia (10 subjects) showed numerous reading errors (e.g., substitution of syllables and words), low performance in visual-motor coordination items (coding), and REA in dichotic listening.

Brain↗
PubMed1994

Effects of speaking speed on cerebral lateralization of speech assessed by a dual-task interference paradigm.

Cerebral asymmetry for speech was assessed by means of a verbal-manual interference paradigm in a sample of 16 right-handed men at two different speaking rates. Normal speech rate disrupted the right hand significantly more than the left, whereas increased speech rate showed no differences between right and left hands during verbal-manual interference tasks. This result suggests a role of speaking speed in modifying cerebral motor functions related to speech production.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Paradoxical selective recovery in a bilingual aphasic following subcortical lesions.

In monolinguals, not only cortical areas but also specific subcortical structures are crucial for language and speech processing. While the role of the left basal ganglia in monolingual aphasia has been defined, its relevance in bilingual and polyglot aphasia is still unknown. Data have now been obtained on a patient who, following an ischaemic lesion not involving cortical structures and mainly confined to the left basal ganglia, showed severe impairments in mother tongue production, with significantly better performance in her hardly spoken second language. This dissociation remained stable for over a year and was observed both in spontaneous speech and in translation tasks. This pattern of linguistic performance, which has never been described in relation to subcortical lesions, suggests that the left basal ganglia play a relevant role in the output of a highly automatized language.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

Hemispheric asymmetry for the auditory recognition of true and false statements.

A group of right-handed adult subjects (24 males and 24 females) were asked to judge phrases as to their truthfulness of falsehood, by listening to them via earphones either with the right or with the left ear. These phrases, which had been previously recorded by two non-actors (1 male and 1 female) and two actors (1 male and 1 female), were either true or false. The number of correct judgements made by the subjects was significantly higher than the number of wrong judgements. The subjects correctly recognised significantly more true phrases than false ones. Moreover, they better recognised true phrases pronounced by the actors and false phrases pronounced by the non-actors. True phrases pronounced by male speakers and false phrases pronounced by female speakers were better recognised. A left-ear advantage was found in the recognition of true statements.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Effects of ethyl alcohol on hemispheric specialization of language and on hand movements.

Hemispheric specialization for linguistic functions was assessed by means of a dual-task (verbal-manual) paradigm and a dichotic listening test in 16 right-handed men after the administration of a moderate dose of ethyl alcohol. No statistical evidence supporting the hypothesis that moderate doses of alcohol affect motor or perceptive aspects of hemispheric specialization was found.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Hemispheric specialization for semantic and syntactic components of language in simultaneous interpreters.

Hemispheric specializations for semantic and syntactic components in Italian (L1) and English (L2) were studied with a dichotic listening test, simulating simultaneous interpretation tasks in 24 right-handed female interpretation students at the Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori (SSLM) of the University of Trieste and in 12 right-handed female professional interpreters at the European Communities (EEC). The test involved the recognition of correct translations, translations with semantic errors, and translations with syntactic errors from L1 to L2 and vice versa. As an overall result, both students and interpreters gave significantly more correct answers when sentences in L2 as the target language were sent to the left ear. Students recognized significantly more sentences containing syntactic errors than did professional interpreters, while professional interpreters recognized significantly more sentences with semantic errors than did interpreting students. In regard to hemispheric specialization in interpreting students, no significant asymmetries were revealed in the recognition of semantic and syntactic errors. Professional interpreters showed a significant right-ear superiority in recognizing semantic errors in L1 and a significant left-ear superiority in recognizing semantic errors in L2. In the recognition of syntactic errors, professional interpreters showed significant left-ear superiority for L1 and significant right-ear superiority for L2. The prolonged practice in simultaneous interpreting strategies in EEC professional interpreters may account for some of their peculiar hemispheric specializations for languages revealed by this study.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Opposite musical-manual interference in young vs expert musicians.

Cerebral lateralization for music has been studied through a music-manual interference paradigm (tapping) in a group of young musicians (seven males and seven females) attending the 1st and 3rd intermediate grades of Udine's "J. Tomadini" State Conservatory of Music and in a group of graduated expert musicians or higher course students during the execution of three distinct tasks (singing notes, whistling a melody and singing a melody). A significant superiority of the right hemisphere (greater degree of interference with the left hand) in these tasks has been found in young musicians, while an opposite left hemisphere superiority (greater degree of interference with the right hand) was evident in the expert musicians. Other differences between sexes and tasks were not significant. The modification of hemispheric specialization occurring during academical musical training are discussed in terms of the role of education in the cerebral organization of superior cognitive functions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Cerebral lateralization in simultaneous interpretation.

Cerebral asymmetries for L1 (Italian), L2 (English), and L3 (French, German, Spanish, or Russian) were studied, by using a verbal-manual interference paradigm, in a group of Italian right-handed polyglot female students at the Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori (SSLM-School for Interpreters and Translators) of the University of Trieste and in a control group of right-handed monolingual female students at the Medical School of the University of Trieste. In an automatic speech production task no significant cerebral lateralization was found for the mother tongue (L1) either in the interpreting students or in the control group; the interpreting students were not significantly lateralized for the third language (L3), while weak left hemispheric lateralization was shown for L2. A significantly higher degree of verbal-manual interference was found for L1 than for L2 and L3. A significantly higher disruption rate occurred in the meaning-based mode of simultaneous interpretation (from L2 into L1 and vice versa) than in the word-for-word mode (from L2 into L1 and vice versa). No significant overall or hemispheric differences were found during simultaneous interpretation from L1 into L2 or from L2 into L1.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Audio-phonological and neuropsychological aspects of simultaneous interpretation. Role of auditory shadowing.

Two groups of female interpreter students (3rd year and 4th year) at the School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste (SIT) underwent a paradigm of complex shadowing. All subjects were polyglots, with Italian as first language (L1) and German, learned after age 10, as second language (L2). In the first part of the experiment, they were asked to listen to and immediately repeat 60 lists of 50 words each in Italian passed through earphones to the right ear (RE) and the same number of words to the left ear (LE). In the second part, the subjects were asked to do the same thing, but this time with German words to be listened to and immediately translated into Italian. The 3rd-year students generally made significantly more errors than the 4th-year students, both in L1 and in L2, and in particular when listening to the words with their left ear, as opposed to the right. No significant difference between ears or languages was shown by the 4th-year students. Moreover, no significant difference was found between the two groups in tasks requiring verbal long-term memory, i.e. repetition of lists of words with 'target words' to remember. The longer exercise in simultaneous interpreting apparently improves the students' performances in shadowing, and probably modifies the organization of some aspects of hemispheric specialization for L1 and L2.

Auditory Perception↗