Increasing nodal vulnerability and nodal efficiency implied recovery time prolonging in patients with supplementary motor area syndrome

Supplementary motor area (SMA) syndrome is a surgery‐related complication that commonly occurs after removing SMA glioma, and needs weeks to recover. However, susceptible factors of patients suffering from SMA syndrome remain unknown. Graphic theory was applied to reveal topological properties of sensorimotor network (SMN) by processing resting‐state functional magnetic resonance images in 66 patients with SMA gliomas. Patients were classified into SMA and non‐SMA groups based on whether they suffered from SMA syndrome. We collected recovery time and used causal mediation analysis to find association between topological properties and recovery time. Compared with the non‐SMA group, higher vulnerability (left: p = .0018; right: p = .0033) and lower fault tolerance (left: p = .0022; right: p = .0248) of the whole SMN were found in the SMA group. Moreover, higher nodal properties of lesional‐hemispheric cingulate cortex (nodal efficiency: left, p = .0389; right, p = .0169; nodal vulnerability: left, p = .0185; right, p = .0085) and upper limb region of primary motor cortex (PMC; nodal efficiency: left, p = .0132; right, p = .0001; nodal vulnerability: left, p = .0091; right, p = .0209) were found in the SMA group. Nodal efficiency and nodal vulnerability of cingulate cortex and upper limb region of PMC were important predictors for SMA syndrome occurring and recovery time prolonging. Neurosurgeons should carefully deal with upper limb region of PMC and cingulate cortex, and protect them if these two region were unnecessary to damage during SMA glioma resection.     

Assessing upper limb function in nonambulant SMA patients: development of a new module

We report the development of a module specifically designed for assessing upper limb function in nonambulant SMA patients, including young children and those with severe contractures. The application of the module to a preschool cohort of 40 children (age 30-48 months) showed that all the items could be completed by 30 months.The module was also used in 45 nonambulant SMA patients (age 30 months to 27 years). Their scores were more variable than in the preschool cohort, ranging from 0 to 18. The magnitude of scores was not related to age (r = −0.19).The upper limb scores had a good correlation with the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale, r = 0.75, but the upper limb function did not always strictly follow the overall gross motor function. These findings suggest that even some of the very weak nonambulant children possess upper limb skills that can be measured.     

Management and outcome of primary spinal ependymomas: A single center experience from Taiwan

Background

Surgical treatment of spinal ependymomas requires careful consideration of the relative risks of neurological worsening from surgery. Our aim was to determine the risk factors of neurological deterioration after surgery for spinal ependymomas.

Material and methods

This 20-year study included 17 patients (seven men and 10 women; 44.65 ± 13.62 years) with histologically confirmed spinal ependymomas. The basic features were reviewed and the functional status was assessed by using the modified McCormick classification. We subdivided the patient population into two groups according to whether neurological deterioration occurred after primary tumor resection (N = 5) or not (N = 12), and compared their clinical characteristics.

Results

The average duration of presenting symptoms in the 17 patients was 23.53 ± 21.45 months. Three (17.6%) patients underwent subtotal or partial resection and 14 (82.4%) patients underwent gross total resection. The incidence of neurological deterioration after primary resection of spinal ependymomas was 29.4%. There were five (100%) and two (16.7%) male patients in the neurological-deterioration and no-deterioration groups, respectively (p = 0.003). The duration of presenting symptoms was 24 months or over in all the patients with neurological deterioration and five of the 12 patients with improved or stabilized function (p = 0.044).

Conclusion

The risk associated with surgical resection of spinal ependymomas should not be overlooked because of the significant incidence of neurological deterioration. The male gender and long-standing symptom (≥24 months) are risk factors of postoperative neurological worsening. Early diagnosis and surgery are therefore critical for successful treatment of spinal ependymomas.     

Posterior SMA Syndrome following subcortical stroke: Contralateral akinesia reversed by visual feedback

Background

The supplementary motor area (SMA) plays a key role in motor programming and production and is involved in internally-cued movements. In neurological populations, SMA syndrome following a lesion to the “SMA proper” is characterized by transient impairment of voluntary movements and motor sequences. This syndrome is assumed to follow on from an interruption of the motor cortico-subcortical loop, and some case reports indicate that such a syndrome could occur after a brain lesion isolating the SMA from subcortical structures.

Aim

To characterize the pattern of motor impairments in a patient whose stroke disconnects the SMA from the subcortical motor loop.

Method

A patient developed a moderate transient left hemiparesis following a subcortical stroke in the right anterior cerebral artery area, which disconnected the SMA from basal ganglia. Eight days after the stroke, when the hemiparesis had regressed, the patient presented a specific SMA motor disorder of the left hand which manifested as an akinesia and was exacerbated when his visual attention was not directed towards his hand. We assessed finger tapping with left and right hands, eyes closed and open, in the left and right hemispace. We indexed movement speed as the number of taps filmed over 5-s periods.

Results

Left motor weakness (grasping strength of right hand: 49 kg and left hand: 41 kg) was resolved in a week. Ideomotor and ideational gestures and motor sequences were preserved. On the tapping task, left-hand tapping was slower than right-hand tapping. Critically, visual feedback improved tapping speed for the left, but not for the right, hand. The hemispace of the task execution had no effect on tapping performance.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that SMA-basal ganglia disconnection decreases contralateral movement initiation and maintenance and this effect is partly compensated by visual cues.     

Executive functions recover earlier than episodic memory after microsurgical transsphenoidal resection of pituitary tumors in adult patients – a longitudinal study

Pituitary tumors may lead to cognitive dysfunction, and the most prevalent deficits are impaired memory and attention. To investigate whether memory and executive functions improve after surgical treatment we performed a prospective longitudinal study comprising 106 patients with pituitary tumors. Psychometric evaluation was performed with the d2-Letter Cancellation test, the Trail Making test, the Digit Span test and the Intelligence Structure test–Verbal Memory test at three timepoints: preoperatively, and at 3 months and 12 months after surgery. The preoperative and postoperative maximum suprasellar tumor extension and hormone status was assessed in all participants. The main finding was that concentration, working memory, and attentional speed improved significantly within the first 3 months after surgery (p < 0.05), while improvement of episodic memory was not observed until 12 months after surgery (p < 0.001). In the patients harbouring non-functioning adenomas, prolactinomas or other sellar lesions, the most important factor promoting improvement of neurocognitive function was the removal of the suprasellar tumor extension.     

Surgical management of cortical dysplasia in infancy and early childhood

Purpose: To describe operative procedures, seizure control and complications of surgery for cortical dysplasia (CD) causing intractable epilepsy in infancy and early childhood. Methods: Fifty-six consecutive children (less than 6 years old) underwent resective epilepsy surgery for CD from December 2000 to August 2011. Age at surgery ranged from 2 to 69 months (mean 23 months) and the follow-up was from 1 to 11 years (mean 4 years 4 months). Results: Half of the children underwent surgery during infancy at an age less than 10 months, and the majority (80%) of these infants needed extensive surgical procedures, such as hemispherotomy and multi-lobar disconnection. Seizure free (ILAE class 1) outcome was obtained in 66% of the cases (class 1a; 55%): 85% with focal resection (n = 13), 50% with lobar resection (n = 18), 71% with multilobar disconnection (n = 7) and 67% with hemispherotomy (n = 18). Peri-ventricular and insular structures were resected in 23% of focal and 61% of lobar resections. Repeated surgery was performed in 9 children and 5 (56%) became seizure free. Histological subtypes included hemimegalencephaly (16 patients), polymicrogyria (5 patients), and FCD type I (6 patients), type IIA (19 patients), type IIB (10 patients). Polymicrogyria had the worst seizure outcome compared to other pathologies. Surgical complications included 1 post-operative hydrocephalus, 1 chronic subdural hematoma, 2 intracranial cysts, and 1 case of meningitis. No mortality or severe morbidities occurred. Conclusions: Early surgical intervention in children with CD and intractable seizures in infancy and early childhood can yield favorable seizure outcome without mortality or severe morbidities although younger children often need extensive surgical procedures.     

汉-英双语言脑功能区外科手术定位的探讨

目的探讨中国人汉-英语的脑功能区定位及手术方法。方法对1例广东籍汉语普通话-英语双语言脑功能区低级别胶质瘤病人，术前通过汉、英语语义、语音和图文实验任务，经功能磁共振（fMRI）定位汉语和英语皮质区．由神经功能导航制定手术计划和定位，术中采用超声探测肿瘤，全麻唤醒下双语定位监测功能区，行显微手术切除病变。结果fMRI检出汉语激活区在肿瘤的前下外部，即额中下回后部，英语激活区则位于近肿瘤的额上中回后部。切除肿瘤过程中英语较汉语出现明显障碍征象。肿瘤获次全切除，术后出现短暂辅助运动区（SMA）综合征，英语运动性失语于术后1周内恢复；术后3个月，fMRI显示英语激活区重塑位移。术后8个月随访，病人恢复正常生活和工作，术前癫痫症状消失。结论①采用双语方式进行fMRI扫描定位、神经导航功能区定位和术中清醒状态下双语监测，使双语言脑功能区病变病人的手术治疗成为可能。②在保留母语功能的前提下，对第2语言区病变做到最大限度切除后，其语言功能仍可能得到恢复。     

Temporary deterioration of executive function after subthalamic deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease

Objective

Selective impairment of executive function has been shown in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) of the Subthalamic Nucleus (STN). However, some patients experience difficulties in daily life, such as dissension in interpersonal relationships or a loss of lifestyle balance, in the short term after surgery. Our hypothesis is that these difficulties might be related to executive dysfunction. To elucidate the involvement of executive dysfunction in these difficulties, we assessed motor and executive function in the short term and long term after surgery.

Methods

We examined motor function and executive function in 30 patients who underwent bilateral STN–DBS for medically refractory PD. Patients were evaluated for executive function 1 month before surgery, 1 month after surgery, and 12 months after surgery using the Trail Making Test (TMT), the Modified Stroop Color Word Interference Test (MST) and tests of Verbal Fluency (VF).

Results

TMT-B, TMT (B/A), MST-B, VF-phonemic and VF-semantic scores were significantly poorer 1 month after STN–DBS. TMT-B, TMT (B/A) and VF-phonemic recovered to preoperative levels by 12 months after surgery. A reduction in dopaminergic medication 1 month after surgery was significantly correlated with deterioration of TMT (B/A).

Conclusion

Temporary deterioration of executive function may occur in the short term after STN–DBS, whereas motor function is usually improved. PD patients undergoing STN–DBS should be managed during this period to better predict temporary executive dysfunction. Excessive reduction of dopaminergic medication after surgery might, at least in part, result in this deterioration of executive function.     

Survival outcomes for radiotherapy treatment of epidermoid tumors with malignant transformation

Epidermoid tumors are intracranial lesions that may occasionally undergo malignant transformation. Although surgical resection is the first-line treatment for malignant epidermoids, postoperative radiotherapy has been intermittently reported with favorable findings. Our analysis identified all previously reported patients with malignant epidermoids treated with surgical resection alone or surgery plus radiotherapy to examine the potential role for this adjuvant therapy. Whereas patients treated with surgery only had an overall survival of 6.6 months, those treated with postoperative radiotherapy demonstrated a statistically significant increase in survival to 12.7 months (log-rank test, p < 0.003). Furthermore, the mean dosage of radiation given to this patient population was 52.2 Gy, with no appreciable survival benefit for the utilization of levels of radiation greater than 50 Gy. When determining the management for malignant transformation of epidermoid tumors, the combination of surgical resection and radiotherapy may be associated with improved short-term survival.     

The impact of repeated surgery and adjuvant therapy on survival for patients with recurrent glioblastoma

Objective

Treatment of glioblastoma recurrence can have a palliative aim, after considering risks and potential benefits. The aim of this study is to verify the impact of surgery and of palliative adjuvant treatments on survival after recurrence.

Methods

From January 2002 to June 2008, we treated 76 consecutive patients with recurrent glioblastoma. Treatment was: 1-surgery alone – 17 patients; 2-adjuvant-therapy alone – 24 patients; 3-surgery and adjuvant therapy – 16 patients; no treatment – 19 patients. The impact on median overall-survival (OS-time between recurrence and death/last follow-up) of age, Karnofsky performance scale (KPS), resection extent and adjuvant treatment scheme (Temozolomide alone vs low-dose fractionated radiotherapy vs others) was determined. Survival curves were obtained through the Kaplan–Meier method. Cox proportional-hazards was used for multivariate analyses. Significance was set at p < 0.05.

Results

Median OS was 7 months. At univariate analysis, patients with a KPS ≥ 70 had a longer OS (9 months vs 5 months – p < 0.0001). OS was 6 months for patients treated with surgery alone, 5 months for patients that received no treatment, 8 months for patients treated with chemotherapy alone, 14 months for patients treated with surgery and adjuvant therapy-p = 0.01. Patients with a KPS < 70 were significantly at risk for death – HR 2.8 – p = 0.001.Subgroup analysis showed no significant differences between patients receiving gross total or partial tumor resection and among patients receiving different adjuvant therapy schemes. Major surgical morbidity at tumor recurrence occurred in 16 out of 33 patients (48%).

Conclusion

It is fundamental, before deciding to operate patients for recurrence, to carefully consider the impact of surgical morbidity on outcome.     

The contributions of cerebro-cerebellar circuitry to executive verbal working memory

Contributions of cerebro-cerebellar function to executive verbal working memory were examined using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while 16 subjects completed two versions of the Sternberg task. In both versions subjects were presented with two or six target letters during the encoding phase, which were held in memory during the maintenance phase. A single probe letter was presented during the retrieval phase. In the “match condition”, subjects decided whether the probe matched the target letters. In the “executive condition”, subjects created a new probe by counting two alphabetical letters forward (e.g., f → h) and decided whether the new probe matched the target letters. Neural activity during the match and executive conditions was compared during each phase of the task. There were four main findings. First, cerebro-cerebellar activity increased as a function of executive load. Second, the dorsal cerebellar dentate co-activated with the supplementary motor area (SMA) during encoding. This likely represented the formation of an articulatory (motor) trajectory. Third, the ventral cerebellar dentate co-activated with anterior prefrontal regions Brodmann Area (BA) 9/46 and the pre-SMA during retrieval. This likely represented the manipulation of information and formation of a response. A functional dissociation between the dorsal “motor” dentate and “cognitive” ventral dentate agrees with neuroanatomical tract tracing studies that have demonstrated separate neural pathways involving each region of the dentate: the dorsal dentate projects to frontal motor areas (including the SMA), and the ventral dentate projects to frontal cognitive areas (including BA 9/46 and the pre-SMA). Finally, activity during the maintenance phase in BA 9, anterior insula, pre-SMA and ventral dentate predicted subsequent accuracy of response to the probe during the retrieval phase. This finding underscored the significant contribution of the pre-SMA/ventral dentate pathway - observed several seconds prior to any motor response to the probe - to executive verbal working memory.     

The influence of surgery on recurrence pattern of glioblastoma

Objectives

Glioblastoma recurs within 2 cm from the primary tumor's margins in 90–95% of cases. Natural history of recurrence is not well defined. The aim of this study was to verify if pattern of recurrence can be influenced by the extent of surgery.

Patients and methods

131 patients with glioblastoma underwent tumor removal, followed by standard adjuvant radio-chemotherapy. Depending on the amount of apparently normal white matter measured around the tumor in the surgical specimen, the extent of surgery was classified into: “border resection” (BR, resection margins at the level of tumor border) or “extended resection” (ER, resection margins 1–2 cm far from tumor border). 88 patients had no residual tumor at post-operative MRI. Among these, 60 patients had a local recurrence (LR) – within 2 cm from the primary tumor's margins, 15 patients had a distant recurrence (DR), 13 patients had no recurrence. Survival curves were obtained through the Kaplan–Meier method. Dichotomous data were compared with the chi-square test.

Results

Patients who underwent ER presented a LR in 67% of cases. Patients who underwent BR presented a LR in 87.5% of cases (p = 0.03). Survival for 60 patients with LR was 16 months vs 35 months for 15 patients with DR (p = 0.06). PFS for patients with LR was 9 months vs 21 months for patients with DR (p = 0.05).

Conclusions

If tumor grows far from eloquent areas, ER may increase the probability to obtain a gross total resection, a greater number of patients with DR and, therefore, a longer survival.     

Neuropsychological predictors of response to randomized treatment in obsessive–compulsive disorder

Objective

To identify neuropsychological predictors of treatment response to cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) and fluoxetine in treatment-naïve adults with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD).

Method

Thirty-eight adult outpatients with OCD underwent neuropsychological assessment, including tasks of intellectual function, executive functioning and visual and verbal memory, before randomization to a 12-week clinical trial of either CBT or fluoxetine. Neuropsychological measures were used to identify predictors of treatment response in OCD.

Results

Neuropsychological measures that predicted a better treatment response to either CBT or fluoxetine were higher verbal IQ (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence) (p = 0.008); higher verbal memory on the California Verbal Learning Test (p = 0.710); shorter time to complete part D (Dots) (p < 0.001), longer time to complete part W (Words) (p = 0.025) and less errors on part C (Colors) (p < 0.001) in the Victoria Stroop Test (VST). Fewer perseverations on the California Verbal Learning Test, a measure of mental flexibility, predicted better response to CBT, but worse response to fluoxetine (p = 0.002).

Conclusion

In general, OCD patients with better cognitive and executive abilities at baseline were more prone to respond to either CBT or fluoxetine. Our finding that neuropsychological measures of mental flexibility predicted response to treatment in opposite directions for CBT and fluoxetine suggests that OCD patients with different neuropsychological profiles may respond preferentially to one type of treatment versus the other. Further studies with larger samples of OCD patients are necessary to investigate the heuristic value of such findings in a clinical context.     

Neuropsychological Effect of Temporal Lobe Resection in Preadolescent Children with Epilepsy

Summary: Purpose : Numerous studies have demonstrated changes in cognitive, memory, and language functioning in adults and adolescents after temporal lobectomy, yet little information is available regarding neuropsychological outcome in preadolescent children.
Methods : We studied pre-and postoperative neuropsychological test results from 14 children who underwent temporal lobe resection for intractable epilepsy at age 7–12 years (mean 9.4 years).
Results : Thirteen patients (93%) had no seizures or less than one seizure a year at follow-up 23-48 months (mean 34 months) after operation. Postoperative neuropsychological testing was performed 6–9 months (mean 7 months) after surgery in 13 patients and 36 months after the first operation in 1 patient who underwent two-stage resection of a tumor. Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ were initially in the low-average range, with no significant change across the pre-and postoperative evaluations. Immediate verbal memory performance decreased significantly in children who initially performed above the median preoperatively and tended to decrease in children who had left rather than right temporal lobe resection. Significant postoperative decreases in delayed memory scores were independent of preoperative ability or side of resection.
Conclusions : Our small study suggests vulnerability to postoperative decline in immediate verbal memory scores in preadolescent children who have higher baseline immediate memory function or undergo left rather than right temporal lobe resection, similar to that observed in adolescents in adults. The entire group exhibited a statistically significant decrease in delayed verbal memory. Study of larger series of patients will be important to clarify further the short-and long-term risks and benefits of temporal lobe resection in childhood.     

Dose-dependent frontal hypometabolism on FDG-PET in methamphetamine abusers

Objective

Although a lot of evidence from neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies supports the view that patients with substance dependence have abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex, functional deficits in the prefrontal cortex have not been fully investigated in methamphetamine (MA) dependent patients. This study was prepared to examine whether MA abusers have cerebral metabolic abnormalities and executive dysfunction.

Method

Twenty-four abstinent MA dependent patients and 21 age-matched control subjects underwent resting brain FDG-PET and completed computerized versions of the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST). Resting brain PET images were obtained 30 min after an intravenous injection of 370 MBq of ¹⁸F-FDG. Significant differences in glucose metabolism were estimated for every voxel using t-statistics on SPM2 implemented in Matlab.

Results

Resting brain FDG-PET revealed significant hypometabolism in the left inferior frontal white matter (Talairach coordinates (x, y, z): −34, 7, 31) in MA dependent patients compared to the control subjects (corrected p = 0.001, peak Z = 5.37, voxel number 201). The nearest gray matter region was the left inferior frontal cortex (Brodmann area 9). There were negative correlations between the relative regional cerebral metabolism for glucose (rCMRglc) in the left inferior frontal white matter and the total cumulative dose of MA (r = −0.57, p < 0.01). MA dependent patients completed significantly fewer categories (3.8 ± 2.2) and made more perseveration errors (21.3 ± 11.8) and total errors (43.5 ± 19.5) on the WCST when compared to the control subjects (p < 0.01).

Conclusions

These data suggest that MA dependent patients have dose-dependent frontal hypometabolism and frontal executive dysfunction.     

Memory outcome after selective amygdalohippocampectomy in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy: one-year follow-up

Summary:  Purpose: In a previous study we reported clinically significant memory declines 3 months after selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH) in 140 patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, particularly if the resection was left-sided. We supposed that the observed postoperative impairments might have reflected acute effects of surgery. Therefore we evaluated in the present study whether a recovery can be found 1 year after surgery.
Methods: Verbal and nonverbal memory functions were assessed in 115 patients before and 3 and 12 months after unilateral SAH.
Results: No recovery of postoperative verbal memory declines was found in the left-SAH group. Clinically meaningful losses were still evident in 33 to 50% of patients. In right-SAH patients, a recovery of verbal memory was indicated, and effects of surgical complications were no longer evident. One year after surgery, the corresponding preoperative performance was the only significant predictor of a postoperative change in the left-SAH group.
Conclusions: Verbal memory decline observed 3 months after left SAH is persistent 1 year after surgery. Declines in verbal memory, which were observed in some right-SAH patients at the short-term follow-up, seem to be temporary.     

Atrophy of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is associated with poor performance in verbal fluency in elderly poststroke women

This study aimed to investigate the association between atrophy in the prefrontal cortex with executive function and verbal fluency in elderly male and female patients poststroke. Thirty elderly female patients with non-aphasic ischemic stroke aged ≥ 60 years and 30 age-matched non-aphasic male patients with ischemic stroke were recruited. Automatic magnetic resonance imaging segmentation was used to assess the volume of the whole prefrontal cortex, along with its subdivisions: anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The Semantic Verbal Fluency Test was administered at 3 and 15 months poststroke. At 3 months poststroke, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume was significantly correlated with Verbal Fluency Test score in female patients only (partial coefficient = 0.453, P = 0.045), after controlling for age, education, diabetes, neurological deficit, white matter lesions volume, as well as the location and volume of infarcts. At 15 months poststroke, there remained a significant association between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume and Verbal Fluency Test (partial coefficient = 0.661, P = 0.001) and between the left prefrontal cortex volume and Verbal Fluency Test (partial coefficient = 0.573, P = 0.004) in female patients after the same adjustments. These findings indicate that atrophy of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contributes to the impairment of verbal fluency in elderly female patients with stroke. Sex differences may be present in the neuropsychological mechanisms of verbal fluency impairment in patients with stroke.     

Executive neuropsychological functioning in individuals with Williams syndrome

The present study investigated executive neuropsychological functioning in individuals with the neuro-developmental disorder Williams syndrome (WS) using a set of validated standardized neuropsychological tasks. Relatively few studies have examined frontal lobe related executive functions within the cognitive phenotype associated with the disorder. The present study compared participants with WS to typically developing participants who were individually matched for (1) chronological age and (2) verbal mental age (N = 19 each group) on tasks of attention-set shifting, planning and working memory from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). To address the specificity of executive function impairment, non-executive tasks of delayed short-term memory and short-term memory span were also administered. Individuals with WS (mean age 18 years) showed impaired executive functioning on tasks of attention set-shifting, working memory, and planning. Non-executive deficits were also observed in short-term delayed memory and memory span. Neuropsychological impairments were correlated with a range of behavioural problems assessed using parent-rated Questionnaires. Overall, these findings point to the role of a range of executive function impairments in WS but further suggest that cognitive impairments extend beyond executive dysfunction.     

Association analysis of genes in serotonin pathway with attention and executive function in patients with bipolar affective disorder

Background

The reason why it is difficult to identify susceptibility genes attributed to bipolar disorder (BPD) is the phenotypic heterogeneity. The use of endophenotypes has been advocated as one possible strategy to discovery cause variants of BPD.

Methods

A total of 164 patients with BPD and 164 matched controls were employed in the present research. Fifty-two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the genes in serotonin pathway were selected for genotyping using the GoldenGate genotyping assay. All participants completed three neurocognitive tests including the tower of Hanoi (TOH), the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) and Trail making tests (TMTA and TMTB-M).

Results

Patients with BPD demonstrated a wide range of deficits in mental activities of attention and speed of information processing, and executive function. Significant interactions between rs2760347 in 5HTR2A gene and diagnosis were found for the executive time of TOH, with β = 11.82 and P = 0.002 (adjusted P = 0.03 after Bonferroni correction).

Conclusions

Cognitive impairments existing in BPD may be particularly notable in certain domains of attention and executive function, and 5HTR2A gene may be involved in modulating executive function of BP-I patients.     

Surgery of children with frontal lobe lesional epilepsy: Neuropsychological study

Aim of the study was to provide new data about the evolution of neuropsychological findings in patients with lesional frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) operated on with lesion excision. Patients and methods Twelve patients with lesional FLE underwent full clinical examination including neurological, neuropsychological and developmental assessments, high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ictal and interictal prolonged EEG monitoring and evaluation of seizure semeiology before and after surgery. The mean follow-up duration was 2 years and 10 months (range = 14 months-7 years). Another group of lesional temporal lobe epilepsy, matched for the age at surgery and side of surgery, was likewise studied in order to compare neuropsychological patterns and to try to find out specific features in frontal lobe epilepsy evolution. Results All patients resulted seizure free at outcome except one belonging to Engel’s class II. Before surgery general intelligence was similar in FLE as well as in TLE group. Executive functions and motor coordination were frequently affected in FLE whereas patients with TLE often presented with deficits in naming, visual memory and visuo-spatial attention. After surgery there was a frequent decline of IQ in FLE group together with a slight deterioration, especially of executive functions in some patients. An improvement of behaviour was often observed in both groups. Conclusions As already reported in literature, neuropsychological pre-surgical data confirms the involvement of attention and executive functions in lesional FLE. No significant neuropsychological improvement was produced by surgery that determined in some cases a slight decline of general intelligence and specific frontal abilities. Yet, generally behaviour improved and seizures were controlled.