Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S M Aglioti

Publications and source records attributed to S M Aglioti.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Rehabilitation of limb apraxia improves daily life activities in patients with stroke.

We randomly assigned 33 patients with left hemisphere stroke, limb apraxia, and aphasia to an apraxia or a control (aphasia) treatment group. Before and after each treatment, patients underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological testing battery and a caregiver evaluation of patient's activities of daily life (ADL) independence. Apraxia severity was related with ADL independence. Control (aphasia) treatment improved patients' language and intelligence performance. Apraxia treatment specifically improved praxic function and ADL.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2005

Repetitive magnetic stimulation: a novel therapeutic approach for myofascial pain syndrome.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the short, medium and long-term effects of peripheral repetitive magnetic stimulation (rMS) on myofascial pain compared with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS).Fifty-three subjects with myofascial trigger points (TPs) at the level of the superior trapezius muscle were allocated randomly to three groups. The first group (n=17) was treated with rMS, the second (n=18) with TENS and the third (n=18) received a placebo treatment. Each treatment consisted of ten daily 20-minute sessions. Patients were evaluated before and immediately following treatment, and at one and three months after the end of treatment. Outcome measures were: the "neck pain and disability visual analogue scale" (NPDVAS), an algometric evaluation of pain, an evaluation of the TP characteristics, and the range of cervical bending and rotation contralateral to the affected trapezius muscle. At the end of treatment, the rMS group showed a significant improvement in the NPDVAS, algometry, TP characteristics, and cervical contralateral rotation. This improvement also persisted at one and three months post-therapy. After treatment, the TENS group showed significant improvement in the same outcome measures except for algometry. At the one month follow-up visit, this improvement had returned to non significant levels in all outcome measures with the exception of NPDVAS. No significant effect of TENS was seen at the three-month follow-up visit. The placebo group showed no significant improvement in any measure. Our results strongly suggest that at medium and longer term intervals peripheral rMS may be more effective than TENS for the treatment of myofascial pain.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Plastic interactions between hand and face cortical representations in patients with trigeminal neuralgia: a somatosensory-evoked potentials study.

Neurophysiological and neuroimaging studies suggest that pain may play a major role in determining cortical somatosensory rearrangements even in the adult brain. The re-organizational power of pain, however, has been tested in models in which massive deafferentation co-existed with pain (e.g. in phantom pain). Moreover, information on whether spinal and brainstem changes contribute to pain-related plasticity in humans is meagre. We used the non-invasive somatosensory evoked potentials technique in patients with right primary trigeminal neuralgia and no clinical signs of large-diameter fibers of trigeminal deafferentation to assess whether pain may induce plastic changes at multiple levels in the somatosensory system. Subcortical and cortical potentials evoked by stimulation of the right median and posterior tibial nerves ipsilateral to the facial pain were compared with those obtained following stimulation of the left median and tibial nerves and with those obtained in a control group tested in comparable conditions. Amplitudes of parietal N20 and P27 and frontal N30 potentials observed following stimulation of the right median nerve ipsilateral to the facial pain were greater than those of the left median nerve and showed a positive correlation with magnitude of pain. This right-left asymmetry was absent following stimulation of the patients' tibial nerves and in control subjects. No changes were found in spinal N13 and brainstem P14. That facial pain is associated with neuroplastic changes within the somatic cortical representation of the hand suggests a pain-related topographic cortical reorganisation.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

Greater syntactic impairments in native language in bilingual Parkinsonian patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of syntactic impairments in native language in Parkinson's disease. METHODS: Twelve bilingual patients, with Friulian as their first language (L1) and Italian as their second (L2), with Parkinson's disease and 12 normal controls matched for age, sex, and years of schooling, were studied on three syntactic tasks. RESULTS: Patients with Parkinson's disease showed a greater impairment of L1 than L2. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide evidence of greater basal ganglia involvement in the acquisition and further processing of grammar in L1 v L2 possibly due to a major involvement of procedural memory in representing L1 grammar.

Basal Ganglia↗
PubMed2004

Illusory movements of the contralesional hand in patients with body image disorders.

OBJECTIVES: In the present study, we assess whether illusory sensations of movement can be elicited in patients with right brain damage (RBD). METHODS: Ten RBD patients (three with disorders of bodily representations) were asked to report whether movements of their right hand induced any illusory somatic or motor sensations. Inquiries on anomalous sensation of movement of the left hand were carried out while subjects: 1) observed the moving hand in a mirror propped vertically along the parasagittal plane; 2) looked directly at the moving hand; 3) looked at the still hand; 4) kept their eyes closed. Twelve healthy subjects served as controls. RESULTS: Movement of the right hand induced a very clear sensation of movement of the left, contralesional hand in two patients affected by body image disorders. Remarkably, this occurred mainly while subjects were looking in the mirror, that is, when conflicts between visual, somatic, and motor information were maximal. In no condition did control subjects report any consistent anomalous evoked movement or sensation. CONCLUSIONS: Illusory movements of the left, plegic hand contingent upon sensorimotor conflicts can be evoked in brain damaged patients with body image disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

The role of somatosensory feedback in dystonia: a psychophysical [correction of psycophysical] evaluation.

Ten patients with idiopathic dystonia and twelve healthy controls were tested with pairs of non-noxious electrical stimuli separated by different time intervals. Stimuli were delivered (i) to the pad of the index finger (same-point condition), (ii) to the pad and to the base of the index finger (same-finger condition) and (iii) to the pad of the index and ring fingers (different-fingers condition). Subjects were asked to report if they perceived single or double stimuli in the first condition and synchronous or asynchronous stimuli in the second and third conditions. STDTs were significantly higher in dystonic than control subjects in all three conditions. Results extend current knowledge on deficits of somesthetic temporal discrimination in dystonia by showing that temporal deficits are not influenced by spatial variables.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Taste laterality in the split brain.

Two patients with corpus callosum resection, one complete and the other sparing the genu and the rostrum, were tested for discrimination of three basic taste stimuli (sour, bitter, salty) applied to the right or left sides of the tongue. Responses were made by pointing with either hand to written words or images of visual objects corresponding to the stimuli, a language-based discrimination. In both patients, response accuracy was significantly above chance for both hemitongues but there was a significant advantage for the left side. Reaction time was shorter for left stimuli than for right stimuli but the difference was not significant. Eight normal controls matched for age with the patients performed equally well with right and left hemitongue stimuli and so did a third callosotomy patient with sparing of the posterior callosum, including the splenium. Tactile and visual tests showed that the left hemisphere was responsible for language-based responses in the first two patients. The results confirm and extend previous findings in another callosotomy patient, indicating that: (i) taste information from either side of the tongue can reach the left hemisphere in the absence of the corpus callosum; (ii) the ipsilateral input from the tongue to the left hemisphere is more potent functionally than the contralateral input and (iii) in the normal brain, the corpus callosum, specifically its posterior part including the splenium, appears to equalize the effects of the ipsilateral and contralateral gustatory inputs on the left hemisphere. Taken together with evidence about lateralized taste deficits following unilateral cortical lesions, the results also suggest that the gustatory pathways from tongue to cortex are bilaterally-distributed with an ipsilateral predominance that may be subject to individual variations.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Neuroplastic changes related to pain occur at multiple levels of the human somatosensory system: A somatosensory-evoked potentials study in patients with cervical radicular pain.

Studies suggest that pain may play a major role in determining cortical rearrangements in the adult human somatosensory system. Most studies, however, have been performed under conditions whereby pain coexists with massive deafferentation (e.g., amputations). Moreover, no information is available on whether spinal and brainstem changes contribute to pain-related reorganizational processes in humans. Here we assess the relationships between pain and plasticity by recording somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) in patients who complained of pain to the right thumb after a right cervical monoradiculopathy caused by compression of the sixth cervical root, but did not present with clinical or neurophysiological signs of deafferentation. Subcortical and cortical potentials evoked by stimulation of digital nerves of the right thumb and middle finger were compared with those obtained after stimulation of the left thumb and middle finger and with those obtained in a control group tested in comparable conditions. Amplitudes of spinal N13, brainstem P14, parietal N20 and P27, and frontal N30 potentials after stimulation of the painful right thumb were greater than those of the nonpainful left thumb and showed a positive correlation with magnitude of pain. This right-left asymmetry was absent after stimulation of the patients' middle fingers and in control subjects. Results suggest that chronic cervical radicular pain is associated with changes in neural activity at multiple levels of the somatosensory system. The absence of correlation between the amplitude of spinal, brainstem, and cortical components of SEPs suggests that enhancement of cortical activity is not a simple amplification of subcortical enhancement.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Neuropsychological evidence that somatic stimuli are spatially coded according to multiple frames of reference in a stroke patient with tactile extinction.

A right-brain damaged patient with pure tactile extinction was asked to report series of single or double light, brief touches delivered to both hands, the thumb or the pinkie of a single hand, the sides of a single index. The stimulated hand was positioned palm up or palm down, in front of or behind the patient, in anatomic or crossed position. In double touch conditions, stimuli coded as left-sided were extinguished not only when delivered to both hands, but also when delivered on a single hand or a single finger. The findings suggest that tactile stimuli may be coded as left or right according to multiple body anchors that are dynamically scaled from the corporeal midline, to axes centered on a single hand or finger.

Aged↗