1,721,121 research outputs found
Euphoria, pathological laughing and crying
No full textCognitive functions are frequently interested by the MS pathological processes, with reported percentages of impaired patients ranging from 45 to 70. These dysfunctions cause important limitations in familiar and social relations as well in occupational activities. After a long period of neglect, the interest of researchers and clinicians in cognitive functioning of MS patients has constantly increased in the last 30 years. Actually, we know that some cognitive domains (complex attention, information processing speed, working memory, memory and learning, executive and visuo-spatial functions) are more frequently involved than others (basic attention, language, general intelligence). Recent research has explored in more detail the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of cognitive dysfunctions: impairment of both encoding and retrieval processes seem to cause the memory and learning disturbances so frequently identified in MS patients; dysfunction of information processing speed appears as the most frequent and early consequence of MS related damage and neuropsychological tests exploring, like Symbol Digit Modalities Test, processing speed seem the tool most sensitive to the presence of cognitive impairment; visuo-spatial cognitive functions are involved more frequently than previously believed, also in patients without significant visual functions' impairment; language and general intelligence should be explored more deeply before being sure that they are relatively spared. Even if important progresses in the identification and understanding of cognitive functioning in MS patients have been made, investigations must continue, because a deeper knowledge of these aspects will increase the possibility to find strategies for the remediation of the consequences of cognitive dysfunction
Neuropsychological, medical and rehabilitative management of persons with multiple sclerosis
No full textMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS). The symptoms, progression, and severity of the disease are unpredictable and vary from one person to another. Major symptoms include fatigue, sensory-motor (e.g., visual disturbance, spasticity, locomotion), cognitive (e.g., decreased information processing speed, impaired memory), and psychiatric problems (e.g., depression). Although the etiology is unknown, MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease triggered by a viral or other infectious agent in genetically susceptible individuals. The CNS target of the disease is myelin, although it is now known that other aspects of the CNS such as axonal and gray matter regions are also involved
Can the pattern of neuropsychological improvement obtained with cholinergic drugs be used to infer a cholinergic mechanism in other nootropic drugs?
No full text1. Enhancement of episodic memory and reduction of intrusion errors are considered as the most characteristic outcome of cholinergic drugs administration in AD patients. 2. Since the nootropic drugs Piracetam and Oxiracetam are deemed to act through a cholinergic mechanism, we checked whether AD patients treated with these drugs would show the same pattern of neuropsychological improvement. 3. Results were negative, since (a) episodic memory showed a similar degree of improvement both in patients treated with these drugs and in patients treated with placebo; (b) the number of intrusions tended to increase, rather than to decrease, after the treatment period
Contralateral and ipsilateral disorders of visual attention in patients with unilateral brain damage
No full textTo explain the prevalence of unilateral spatial neglect in patients with right brain damage, Heilman et al have suggested that the attentional neurons of the right parietal lobe might have bilateral receptive fields, whereas the homologous cells of the left hemisphere would have strictly contralateral receptive fields. One implication of this theory is that patients with right brain damage should show a prevalence of disorders of visual attention not only in the half space contralateral to the damaged hemisphere, but also in the ipsilateral one. To check this theory, 50 control subjects, 102 right and 125 left brain-damaged patients were given a drawing completion task in which patients were requested to complete the missing parts of a star, a cube and a house. Omissions of lines lying on the sides of the models contralateral and ipsilateral to the damaged hemisphere were taken separately into account. Results did not confirm the hypothesis, since right brain-damaged patients failed to complete the contralateral sides of the models much more frequently than patients with left brain injury, but no difference was found between the two hemispheric groups when ipsilateral disorders of visual attention were taken into account. Furthermore, no correlation was found between omissions of lines lying on the sides of the models contralateral and ipsilateral to the damaged hemisphere. This finding suggests that contralateral and ipsilateral disorders of visual attention are not due to the same mechanism in right brain-damaged patients. The alternative hypothesis viewing ipsilateral disorders as resulting from a widespread lowering of general attention (and only contralateral neglect reflecting a specific disorder of visual attention) was supported by results obtained on a verbal memory test, used to evaluate the general cognitive and attention level of the patients. Patients with clear-cut ipislateral inattention obtained very low scores on this test, whereas patients with severe contralateral neglect, but not ipislateral inattention scored within the normal range on the verbal memory test
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