Impact of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy on Phonological Processing and Reading: A Case Study of Identical Twins

In order to evaluate the possible consequences of temporal lobe epilepsy on reading acquisition, we first compared the reading skills and phonological awareness abilities in a set of 13-year-old identical twins, one of whom is affected by temporal lobe epilepsy (LB). We then compared their performances to those of an age- and IQ-matched control group. Both siblings have an intellectual quotient above average as well as normal memory and linguistic abilities. Results showed that the reading age of LB (assessed by the Lefabvrais French reading test) was more than two years behind expectations whereas that of her sister was above average. Further, in contrast to her sister and healthy control subjects, LB exhibited specific deficits in elaborate metaphonological awareness abilities (non-word repetition, rhyme production, phonemic segmentation and syllabic inversion). These could be linked to temporal lobe dysfunction, thus confirming the important role of the temporal lobes in reading acquisition.     

Dissociating cognitive from affective theory of mind: A TMS study

Introduction

“Theory of Mind” (ToM), i.e., the ability to infer other persons' mental states, is a key function of social cognition. It is increasingly recognized to form a multidimensional construct. One differentiation that has been proposed is that between cognitive and affective ToM, whose neural correlates remain to be identified. We aimed to ascertain the possible role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) for cognitive ToM as opposed to affective ToM processes.

Methods

1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was used to interfere offline with cortical function of the right DLPFC in healthy male subjects who subsequently had to perform a computerized task assessing cognitive and affective ToM.

Results

RTMS over the right DLPFC induced a selective effect on cognitive but not affective ToM. More specifically, a significant acceleration of reaction times in cognitive ToM compared to affective ToM and control items was observed in the experimental (right DLPFC) compared to the control (vertex) rTMS stimulation condition.

Conclusions

Our findings provide evidence for the functional independence of cognitive from affective ToM. Furthermore, they point to an important role of the right DLPFC within neural networks mediating cognitive ToM. Possible underlying mechanisms of the acceleration of cognitive ToM processing under rTMS are discussed.     

华人和德人阅读中—德文眼动型式的比较研究

华人与德人各自阅读本国文字材料的眼动型式非常相似,阅读德语材料的眼动型式几乎一样。但是,汉语系的德国大学生阅读简单中文材料的眼动型式却与不谙中文的德人看一遍他们并不认识的中文材料的眼动相似,而显著不同于华人。研究结果提示,原来学习表意文字(表音文字)的人在转而学习另一种文字时很可能还是运用阅读原来文字的语言手段。对内容一致的横排体中文和直排体中文的阅读眼动参数并无明显区别。     

一例汉语纯失读症患者阅读功能的随访研究

1病例介绍患者,男,74岁,右利手,退休人员,受正式教育15年。患者于2010-6-21无明显诱因出现心悸、气促,就诊于当地卫生院,诊断为"心房颤动",予对症治疗。2010-6-22日晚患者突然出现不认识家人,语言表达障碍,性格改变,伴头晕,无头痛,无恶心呕吐,无四肢抽搐,无四肢活动不利,约数分钟又能认出家人,未予重视。2010-6-23患者家人发现患者语言表达障碍有所加重,遂就诊于当地医院,头颅计算机断层扫描(computed tomography,CT)示:     

Carotid Steal Syndrome: A Case Study

The progression of subclavian arterial stenosis and the subsequent formation of collateral pathways serve to alter the pressure gradients in subclavian steal syndrome, altering ipsilateral vertebral artery flow from its normal state to “latent,” “transient,” and “continuous” steals. A similar altered flow in the carotid arteries can be observed with stenosis of the proximal common or innominate artery. A 59-year-old man was seen in the vascular laboratory for evaluation of symptomatic peripheral arterial disease. An incidental asymptomatic stenosis of the right innominate and left proximal subclavian artery was found . Further cerebral vascular evaluation displayed a continuous right subclavian steal and a latent steal in the right internal carotid artery. Transcranial Doppler examination displayed “transient” steal in the terminal right internal carotid artery. Combining duplex and transcranial Doppler evaluation s allows sequential evaluation of the progression of arterial disease and its effect on the flow patterns in the cerebral vasculature.     

Tourette's Syndrome and Challenging Behaviour: A Case Study

Tourette's syndrome, although often undiagnosed, is one of the remediable causes of challenging behaviour in people with learning disabilities. The social consequences for the sufferer when the disorder is unrecognised can include rejection, blame and isolation. This paper describes the diagnosis of Tourette's syndrome in a man with learning disabilities, and the effectiveness of medical and social interventions.     

A Case Study on Adolescent Suicide: Tim

A case of an adolescent suicide is presented through an interview with his mother. Two Commentaries follow discussing the psychodynamic and diagnostic aspects of the suicidal development from a suicidological perspective.     

Auditory-somatosensory multisensory interactions in humans: Dissociating detection and spatial discrimination

Simple reaction times (RTs) to auditory-somatosensory (AS) multisensory stimuli are facilitated over their unisensory counterparts both when stimuli are delivered to the same location and when separated. In two experiments we addressed the possibility that top-down and/or task-related influences can dynamically impact the spatial representations mediating these effects and the extent to which multisensory facilitation will be observed. Participants performed a simple detection task in response to auditory, somatosensory, or simultaneous AS stimuli that in turn were either spatially aligned or misaligned by lateralizing the stimuli. Additionally, we also informed the participants that they would be retrogradely queried (one-third of trials) regarding the side where a given stimulus in a given sensory modality was presented. In this way, we sought to have participants attending to all possible spatial locations and sensory modalities, while nonetheless having them perform a simple detection task. Experiment 1 provided no cues prior to stimulus delivery. Experiment 2 included spatially uninformative cues (50% of trials). In both experiments, multisensory conditions significantly facilitated detection RTs with no evidence for differences according to spatial alignment (though general benefits of cuing were observed in Experiment 2). Facilitated detection occurs even when attending to spatial information. Performance with probes, quantified using sensitivity (d′), was impaired following multisensory trials in general and significantly more so following misaligned multisensory trials. This indicates that spatial information is not available, despite being task-relevant. The collective results support a model wherein early AS interactions may result in a loss of spatial acuity for unisensory information.     

Dissociating arabic numeral reading and basic calculation: a case study

This study is about JS, a patient who suffered from anomia, phonological dyslexia and severe writing problems following a left hemispheric stroke. He showed good arabic numeral comprehension as evidenced in number-comparison tasks, but impairment in transcoding arabic numerals into verbal numbers and verbal numbers into arabic numerals. Although JS had several operand reading errors, the four arithmetic operations were not affected. In calculations with arabic numerals, he produced the correct results both in oral and written responses. For instance, when presented with the multiplication "7 x 3", JS read the operation as "four times five", but provided the correct response orally "twenty one" and written "21". This behavior goes against those hypotheses which posit that multiplication facts are verbally-based, and those which establish the same route for verbal number production in calculation and arabic numeral reading.     

Ideomotor and Ideational Apraxia in Corticobasal Degeneration: A Case Study

Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is a progressive disorder that can be characterised by asymmetrical akinetic rigidity, involuntary movements, cortical sensory loss, alien limb syndrome and asymmetrical apraxia (Gibb et al., 1989; Rinnie et al., 1994). Diagnosis of praxic disabilities is thought to be essential for distinguishing CBD, in its early stage, from other akinetic-rigid syndromes. However, the nature of apraxia in CBD, and the relations between ideomotor and ideational apraxia, are not well understood. For example, if there is an ideational deficit in a given patient, does this deficit occur independently of any ideomotor disorder, or are the two impairments linked in some manner? In the present paper we report a case study of a patient with apraxia due to CBD. We examine whether the disorder is confined to production tasks, or whether there is also a related deficit in recognising the correct actions performed with objects (an ideational deficit). We also evaluate whether a disorder found for action with single objects dissociates from the ability to link multiple actions into more complex, everyday tasks. The performance of our patient showed an impairment in both action production and action recognition system, suggesting a component of ideational as well as ideomotor apraxia in CBD.     

Synaesthesia: A Case Study of Discordant Monozygotic Twins

We describe a study of 11-year-old twin sisters who are physically identical in appearance but who have considerably different conscious experiences. One twin appears to be a synaesthete in that she states that she has specific colour experiences (i.e. photisms) whenever she views, hears or thinks of digits. The other twin does not report such conscious experiences when viewing, hearing or thinking about digits. A genotypic analysis using eight microsatellite loci plus the gender of the twins and their parents confirmed that the twins are monozygotic. A phenotypic analysis using a modification of the Stroop task confirmed that only one twin is a synaesthete. We suggest that the discordance in synaesthesia may be due to either an epigenetic event, X chromosome inactivation, or a mutation of a synaesthesia gene.     

Narrative Therapy with Intercultural Couples: A Case Study

We present an example of the use of narrative therapy with intercultural couples. The narratives focus on the exploration of issues facing many intercultural couples, including acculturation, societal pressures, divergent role beliefs, and the construction of a unique couple identity. Specifically, we discuss how externalizing, reauthoring, and remembering conversations of narrative therapy can help intercultural couples to revision and renew their couple identity. A case application is presented to illustrate two specific narrative interventions with intercultural couples.     

Psychiatric and Neuropsychological Abnormalities in Huntington's Disease: A Case Study

The authors describe an atypical presentation of Huntington's disease in a 55-year-old woman who manifested essentially psychotic and cognitive symptoms. A positive family history of Huntington's disease and DNA analysis helped to establish the diagnosis. The patient's psychotic symptoms improved with risperidone. The psychiatric and cognitive symptoms of Huntington's disease are reviewed.