Temporal Lobe

Objective: To analyze the 3-dimensional relationships of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) within the temporal stem using anatomic dissection and to study the surgical application. Methods: Ten postmortem human hemispheres (5 right, 5 left) were dissected using the Klingler fiber dissection technique. The 3-dimensional relationships of the IFOF with different landmarks of the temporal stem, insula, and temporal lobe were analyzed and measured. Results: An average distance of 10.9 mm (range, 8–15 mm) was observed between the limen insulae and the anterior edge of the IFOF under the inferior limiting sulcus of the insula. This anterior one-third of the temporal stem is crossed by the uncinate fasciculus. The IFOF crosses the posterior two-thirds of the temporal stem, in the space between the posterior limit of the uncinate fasciculus and the lateral geniculate body. The average superoinferior distance between the IFOF and the inferior limiting sulcus was 3.8 mm. The audi...

Objectives-It has been shown that atrophy of medial temporal lobe structures such as the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex shown on MRI may distinguish patients with Alzheimer's disease from healthy controls. However, the diagnostic value of visual inspection and volumetry of medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) on MRI in a clinical setting is insuYciently known. Methods-Medial temporal lobe atrophy in 143 patients was visually rated from hard copies, using a 0-4 rating scale and a comparison was made with the volumes (cm 3 ) of the medial temporal lobe as estimated with volumetry, using a stereological method. All patients were recruited in an unselected way in a clinical setting in the centre for memory impairments at the Huddinge University Hospital. Patients with Alzheimer's disease (n=41), patients with other dementias (vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and unspecified dementia; n=36) as well as non-demented subjects (n=66) were included. Medial temporal atrophy and volumetry were evaluated as a diagnostic tool by performing logistic regression analysis including age, sex, and mini mental state examination (MMSE) score and calculating the sensitivity and specificity and percentage correct classification.

Loss of consciousness and falling are the key features of syncope. Common accompaniments include tonic and myoclonic muscle activity, eye deviations, automatisms, vocalizations and hallucinations that may render the distinction from epileptic seizures difficult. The frequently increased levels of serum prolactin (SPRL) were observed immediately after generalized and complex partial seizures. Presumably, the hormone release is caused by the propagation of epileptic activity, usually from the temporal lobe to the hypothalamic pituitary axis. Numerous reports have demonstrated that the post-ictal SPRL level may be used to differentiate between epileptic and syncopal, non-epileptic attacks. In order to confirm the hypothesis, the SPRL levels were measured in patients with compex partial seizures (CPS) and patients with vaso-vagal syncopal attacks (VVS). The SPRL levels were prospectively measured for each patient as soon as possible after the event (within 1 hour), then 1 hour after the first determination and finally blood was sampled 24 hours later. During the study period (18 months), 18 patients with CPS and 15 patients with VVS were investigated in total. The mean values of SPRL levels in both groups were increased immediately after the event (CPS group: 1142 ± 305 mIU/l; VVS group: 874 ± 208 mIU/l). The elevated SPRL levels were found in 14 (78%) patients immediately after CPS and in 9 (60%) patients immediately after VVS. After examining the results of the present study we conclude that the elevated serum prolactin level after an epileptic attack is of no significant value in differential diagnosis between epileptic and vaso-vagal syncopal attacks.

■ Many previous studies have shown that predictable words are read faster and lead to reduced neural activation, consistent with a model of reading in which words are activated in advance of being encountered. The nature of such preactivation, however, has typ-ically been studied indirectly through its subsequent effect on word recognition. Here, we use magnetoencephalography to study the dynamics of prediction within serially presented adjective–noun phrases, beginning at the point at which the pre-dictive information is first available to the reader. Using corpus transitional probability to estimate the predictability of a noun, we found an increase in activity in the left middle temporal gyrus in response to the presentation of highly predictive adjectives (i.e., adjectives that license a strong noun prediction). Moreover, we found that adjective predictivity and expected noun frequency interacted, such that the response to the highly predictive adjec-tives (e.g., stainless) was ...

We describe two patients who have hypochondroplasia with medial temporal lobe dysgenesis. This association has only been reported once before. Both patients had an FGFR3 mutation: 1620C ! A, resulting in Asn540Lys. FGFR3 is expressed in the brain during development and plays a role in hippocampal formation. We suggest FGFR3 mutations might cause cerebral malformations in hypochondroplasia as well as in thanatophoric dysplasia. Further neuroimaging studies of patients with hypochondroplasia and epilepsy or developmental delay may clarify the proportion of patients with hypochondroplasia who have this pattern of central nervous system abnormalities.

Motivated by neuropsychological investigations of category-specific impairments, many functional brain imaging studies have found distinct patterns of neural activity associated with different object categories. However, the extent to which these category-related activation patterns reflect differences in conceptual representation remains controversial. To investigate this issue, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to record changes in neural activity while subjects interpreted animated vignettes composed of simple geometric shapes in motion. Vignettes interpreted as conveying social interactions elicited a distinct and distributed pattern of neural activity, relative to vignettes interpreted as mechanical actions. This neural system included regions in posterior temporal cortex associated with identifying human faces and other biological objects. In contrast, vignettes interpreted as conveying mechanical actions resulted in activity in posterior temporal lobe sites associated with identifying manipulable objects such as tools. Moreover, social, but not mechanical, interpretations elicited activity in regions implicated in the perception and modulation of emotion (right amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Perceiving and understanding social and mechanical concepts depends, in part, on activity in distinct neural networks. Within the social domain, the network includes regions involved in processing and storing information about the form and motion of biological objects, and in perceiving, expressing, and regulating affective responses.

Seventy-five left and right brain-damaged patients, with or without hemispatial neglect, and 40 age-matched control subjects were tested on cancellation tasks with two different visual textures modeled after Julesz (1981). In one condition (''preattentive''), target elements segregated easily from background elements and were perceived effortlessly. In the other (''attentive''), target elements did not segregate easily and could be detected only after prolonged focal scrutiny. Both controls and patients were more accurate and faster on the preattentive than attentive texture. However, only neglect patients were disproportionately impaired on the attentive texture, thus suggesting that unilateral neglect is exacerbated by the low visual salience of the stimuli and a higher engagement of focal attention. Thus, a simple bedside test may help to tell apart the level of visual information processing maximally impaired in neglect patients.

Achieving progress in understanding the cause, nature, and treatment of autism requires an integration of concepts, approaches, and empirical findings from genetic, cognitive neuroscience, animal, and clinical studies. The need for such integration has been a fundamental tenet of the discipline of developmental psychopathology from its inception. It is likely that the discovery of autism susceptibility genes will depend on the development of dimensional measures of broader phenotype autism traits. It is argued that knowledge of the cognitive neuroscience of social and language behavior will provide a useful framework for defining such measures. In this article, the current state of knowledge of the cognitive neuroscience of social and language impairments in autism is reviewed. Following from this, six candidate broader phenotype autism traits are proposed: (a) face processing, including structural encoding of facial features and face movements, such as eye gaze; (b) social affiliat...

Since the discovery that the therapeutic efficacy of antipsychotic drugs was significantly correlated to their ability to block dopamine D 2 receptors, abnormal dopamine transmission in the forebrain has been postulated to underlie psychosis in schizophrenia. In the past 15 years, an impressive amount of clinical and basic research aimed at the study of schizophrenia has indicated that prefrontal and temporal cortical abnormalities may be more important in the etiology of many of the symptoms of schizophrenia, including psychosis. However, the cortical systems that appear to have structural and/or metabolic abnormalities in schizophrenia patients potently regulate forebrain dopamine transmission through a number of mechanisms. In turn, dopamine modulates excitatory transmission mediated by frontal and temporal cortical projections to the basal ganglia and other regions. The present review summarizes the multiple interactions between forebrain DA systems and frontal and temporal corticostriatal transmission. It then examines the role of these interactions in normal behaviors and the psychopa

A case of anaplastic pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA) in a 9-year-old girl is reported. Histological features of PXAs are cellular pleomorphism of GFAP-positive cells, with intracytoplasmic lipidic vacuoles and a reticulin network, bizarre giant cells, low mitotic activity, and lack of necrosis and of endothelial vascular proliferations. These tumors are generally reported to have a favorable postoperative course. In our case, a poor clinical prognosis and spread of the illness through the CSF was observed. Immunohistochemical features of the tumor, which were histologically anaplastic in nature, were analyzed. There were small foci of necrosis in the sections of the material obtained at the first operation and extensive necrosis in that from the second operation, although the patient had not received radiotherapy between the operations. The presence of necrosis in PXA is an uncommon and significant feature. It predicts the poor prognosis seen in this case, and therefore this report strongly supports the notion that necrosis should automatically exclude a tumor from the PXA category. The histological grade was evaluated as grade 3 (according to the WHO classification).

Neurons exhibit a constitutive level of nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) signaling and this pathway plays a significant role in neurite outgrowth, activity-dependent plasticity, and cognitive function. Transcription factor analysis was performed in a microarray data set profiled in four different brain regions (n ¼ 54 comparison group; n ¼ 53 schizophrenia (SZ)). An independent postmortem cohort was used for gene expression (n ¼ 24 comparison group; n ¼ 22 SZ), protein abundance (n ¼ 8 comparison group; n ¼ 8 SZ), and NF-kB nuclear activity (n ¼ 10 comparison group; n ¼ 10 SZ) quantification. Expression quantitative trait locus analysis was performed using publicly available data. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex was tested in healthy individuals (n ¼ 690). Comparison of microarray data showed that NF-kB was among the transcription factors associated with the differential expression of genes in cases vs controls. NF-kB gene and protein levels and nuclear activation were significantly decreased in the superior temporal gyrus of patients with SZ. Upstream NF-kB genes related to translocation were significantly dysregulated in SZ. The gene expression levels of an NF-kB-associated importin (KPNA4: one of the proteins responsible for the translocation of NF-kB to the nucleus) was decreased in SZ and an SNP within the KPNA4 locus was associated with susceptibility to SZ, reduced KPNA4 expression levels and attenuated PPI of the startle reflex in healthy control subjects. These findings implicate abnormalities of the NF-kB signaling pathway in SZ and provide evidence for an additional possible mechanism affecting the translocation of NF-kB signaling to the nucleus.

Twenty-six aphasic patients who had an ischaemic infarct in the territory of the left middle cerebral artery (MCA) were investigated. Cranial computed tomography (CT) showed various lesion sites: infarcts restricted to cortical structures in 12 patients, combined eortical and subcortical infarcts in 7 and isolated subcortical infarcts sparing the left cortex in another 7 cases. 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography revealed remote hypometabolism of the left convexity cortex and of the left basal ganglia, which was extended further than the morphological infarct zone in all cases. Types and degrees of aphasia were classified using the Aachener Aphasie Test (AAT): 10 patients had global aphasia, 2 Broca's, 5 Wernicke's, and 5 amnesic aphasia. Four patients suffered from minimal or residual aphasic symptoms. The A A T results were compared with the regional cerebral metabolic rates of glucose of the left hemisphere, frrespective of the infarct location all five A A T subtests (Token test, repetition, written language, confrontation naming, äuditory and reading comprehension) were closely correlated among each other and with left parieto-temporal metabolic rates, whereas left frontal and left basal ganglia metabolism showed no significant correlation. The close relation between left temporo-parietal functional äctivity and alt five A A T subtests suggests that the different aspects of aphasia tested by A A T can be related to a common disorder of language processing in those areas.

In a longitudinal prospective study of dementia, 158 patients were investigated post mortem. Sixteen patients were classified as frontal lobe dementia (FLD) of non-Alzheimer type and four cases as Pick's disease. Positive heredity for dementia was reported in 50% of these cases compared to 30% in a reference group of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The typical clinical picture in FLD and Pick's disease was that of a slowly progressive dementia, at an early stage dominated by personality change, lack of insight, disinhibition, and later on stereotypy and increased apathy. There was also a progressive dynamic aphasia ending in mutism and amimia. Memory and spatial functions were comparatively spared. Disinhibition, oral/dietary hyperactivity, and echolalia were more consistently found in Pick's disease compared to FLD. The differential diagnosis against AD, cerebrovascular dementia, and other degenerative dementias and against affective disorders and psychotic reactions are discussed.

Declarative knowledge and experiences are represented in the association cortex and are recalled by reactivation of the neural representation. Electrophysiological experiments have revealed that associations between semantically linked visual objects are formed in neural representations in the temporal and limbic cortices. Memory traces are created by the reorganization of neural circuits. These regions are reactivated during retrieval and contribute to the contents of a memory. Two different types of retrieval signals are suggested as follows: automatic and active. One flows backward from the medial temporal lobe during the automatic retrieval process, whereas the other is conveyed as a top-down signal from the prefrontal cortex to the temporal cortex during the active retrieval process. By sending the top-down signal, the prefrontal cortex manipulates and organizes to-be-remembered information, devises strategies for retrieval and monitors the outcome. To further understand the neural mechanism of memory, the following two complementary views are needed: how the multiple cortical areas in the brain-wide network interact to orchestrate cognitive functions and how the properties of single neurons and their synaptic connections with neighbouring neurons combine to form local circuits and to exhibit the function of each cortical area. We will discuss some new methodological innovations that tackle these challenges.

Humor is a uniquely human quality whose neural substrates remain enigmatic. The present report combined dynamic, real-life content and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to dissociate humor detection (''getting the joke'') from humor appreciation (the affective experience of mirth). During scanning, subjects viewed full-length episodes of the television sitcoms Seinfeld or The Simpsons. Brain activity time-locked to humor detection moments revealed increases in left inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortices, whereas brain activity time-locked to moments of humor appreciation revealed increases in bilateral regions of insular cortex and the amygdala. These findings provide evidence that humor depends critically upon extant neural systems important for resolving incongruities (humor detection) and for the expression of affect (humor appreciation).

Background: Prior work shows individuals with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) evince temporal lobe volume abnormalities similar to schizophrenia but sparing of prefrontal cortex, which may mitigate psychosis and the severe neurocognitive impairments observed in schizophrenia. This study examined the extent to which frontal-temporal gray matter volume and neurocognitive performance predict: (1) SPD group membership in a demographically-balanced sample of 51 patients and 37 healthy controls; and (2) symptom severity in SPD. Methods: Dimensional gray-matter volume (left frontal-temporal regions (Brodmann area (BA) 10, 21, 22)) and neurocognitive performance on key memory tasks (California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), Dot Test, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT)), all salient to schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were examined in a multi-variable model. Results: Middle temporal gyrus (BA21) volume and spatial-working memory (Dot Test) performance were significant predictors of SPD group membership likelihood, with poorer working-memory performance indicating increased probability of SPD membership. Combining across regional volumes or cognitive measures resulted in fair-to-good discrimination of group membership, but including neurocognitive and non-collinear regional volume measures together resulted in a receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) curve with improved diagnostic discrimination. Larger BA10 volume in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) significantly predicted less symptom severity in SPD. Conclusions: These findings suggest that temporal lobe volume and spatial-working memory performance are promising biological/phenotype markers for likelihood of SPD classification, while greater DLPFC volume may serve as a protective factor.

Both hemispheres are engaged in recovery from word production deficits in aphasia. Lexical therapy has been shown to induce brain reorganization even in patients with chronic aphasia. However, the interplay of factors influencing reorganization patterns still remains unresolved. We were especially interested in the relation between lesion site, therapy-induced recovery, and beneficial reorganization patterns. Thus, we applied intensive lexical therapy, which was evaluated with functional magnetic resonance imaging, to 14 chronic patients with aphasic word retrieval deficits. In a group study, we aimed to illuminate brain reorganization of the naming network in comparison with healthy controls. Moreover, we intended to analyse the data with joint independent component analysis to relate lesion sites to therapy-induced brain reorganization, and to correlate resulting components with therapy gain. As a result, we found peri-lesional and contralateral activations basically overlapping with premorbid naming networks observed in healthy subjects. Reduced activation patterns for patients compared to controls before training comprised damaged left hemisphere language areas, right precentral and superior temporal gyrus, as well as left caudate and anterior cingulate cortex. There were decreasing activations of bilateral visuo-cognitive, articulatory, attention, and language areas due to therapy, with stronger decreases for patients in right middle temporal gyrus/superior temporal sulcus, bilateral precuneus as well as left anterior cingulate cortex and caudate. The joint independent component analysis revealed three components indexing lesion subtypes that were associated with patient-specific recovery patterns. Activation decreases (i) of an extended frontal lesion disconnecting language pathways occurred in left inferior frontal gyrus; (ii) of a small frontal lesion were found in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus; and (iii) of a large temporo-parietal lesion occurred in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and contralateral superior temporal gyrus. All components revealed increases in prefrontal areas. One component was negatively correlated with therapy gain. Therapy was associated exclusively with activation decreases, which could mainly be attributed to higher processing efficiency within the naming network. In our joint independent component analysis, all three lesion patterns disclosed involved deactivation of left inferior frontal gyrus. Moreover, we found evidence for increased demands on control processes. As expected, we saw partly differential reorganization profiles depending on lesion patterns. There was no compensatory deactivation for the large left inferior frontal lesion, with its less advantageous outcome probably being related to its disconnection from crucial language processing pathways.

Antisocial and violent behaviour have been associated with both structural and functional brain abnormalities in the frontal and the temporal lobes. The aim of the present study was to assess cortical thickness in offenders undergoing forensic psychiatric assessments, one group with psychopathy (PSY, n = 7) and one group with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 7) compared to each other as well as to a reference group consisting of healthy non-criminal subjects (RG, n = 12). A second aim was to assess correlation between scores on a psychopathy checklist (PCL-SV) and cortical thickness. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and surface-based cortical segmentation were used to calculate cortical thickness. Analyses used both regions of interest and statistical maps. When the two groups of offenders were compared, there were no differences in cortical thickness, but the PSY group had thinner cortex in the temporal lobes and in the whole right hemisphere compared to RG. There were no differences in cortical thickness between the ASD group and RG. Across subjects there was a negative correlation between PCL-SV scores and cortical thickness in the temporal lobes and the whole right hemisphere. The findings indicate that thinner cortex in the temporal lobes is present in psychopathic offenders and that these regions are important for the expression of psychopathy. However, whether thinner temporal cortex is a cause or a consequence of the antisocial behaviour is still unknown.

Morphometric magnetic resonance imaging techniques were used to compare the convolutional surface area of the planum temporale, temporal lobe volume and superior surface area, and an estimate of overall brain volume in a homogeneous sample of 17 dyslexic children (7 girls) and 14 nonimpaired children (7 girls). Substantial sex differences were apparent for all measured regions, with all the measurements in boys being significantly larger. Age, even within the narrow range employed here (7.5-9.7 years), was positively correlated with the size of each brain region. While From the *Child Study Center and the Departments of ?Diagnostic

Volumetric MRI studies based on manual labeling of selected anatomical structures have provided in vivo evidence that brain abnormalities associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) extend beyond the hippocampus. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) is a fully automated image analysis technique allowing identification of regional differences in gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) between groups of subjects without a prior region of interest. The purpose of this study was to determine whole-brain GM and WM changes in TLE and to investigate the relationship between these abnormalities and clinical parameters. We studied 85 patients with pharmacologically intractable TLE and unilateral hippocampal atrophy and 47 age-and sex-matched healthy control subjects. The seizure focus was right sided in 40 patients and left sided in 45. Student's t test statistical maps of differences between patients' and controls' GM and WM concentrations were obtained using a general linear model. A further regression against duration of epilepsy, age of onset, presence of febrile convulsions, and secondary generalized seizures was performed with the TLE population. Voxel-based morphometry revealed that GM pathology in TLE extends beyond the hippocampus involving other limbic areas such as the cingulum and the thalamus, as well as extralimbic areas, particularly the frontal lobe. White matter reduction was found only ipsilateral to the seizure focus, including the temporopolar, entorhinal, and perirhinal areas. This pattern of structural changes is suggestive of disconnection involving preferentially frontolimbic pathways in patients with pharmacologically intractable TLE. D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

& We used fMRI to directly compare the neural substrates of three-dimensional (3-D) shape and motion processing for realistic textured objects rotating in depth. Subjects made judgments about several different attributes of these objects, including 3-D shape, the 3-D motion, and the scale of surface texture. For all of these tasks, we equated visual input, motor output, and task difficulty, and we controlled for differ-ences in spatial attention. Judgments about 3-D shape from motion involve both parietal and occipito-temporal regions. The processing of 3-D shape is associated with the analysis of 3-D motion in parietal regions and the analysis of surface texture in occipito-temporal regions, which is consistent with the different behavioral roles that are typically attributed to the dorsal and ventral processing streams. &

Primary low-grade gliomas are common brain tumors of childhood, many of which require radiation therapy (RT) as definitive treatment. Increased conformality of RT could decrease the incidence and severity of late effects. We report our experience with 32 pediatric patients treated with proton RT. Thirty-two pediatric patients with low-grade gliomas of the brain or spinal cord were treated with proton RT from 1995 to 2007. Sixteen patients received at least 1 regimen of chemotherapy before definitive RT. The median radiation dose was 52.2 GyRBE (48.6-54 GyRBE). The median age at treatment was 11.0 years (range, 2.7-21.5 years), with a median follow-up time of 7.6 years (range, 3.2-18.2 years). The 6-year and 8-year rates of progression-free survival were 89.7% and 82.8%, respectively, with an 8-year overall survival of 100%. For the subset of patients who received serial neurocognitive testing, there were no significant declines in Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (P=.80), with a med...

Is it living or not? The ability to differentiate between animate and inanimate entities is of considerable value in everyday life, since it allows for the dissociation of individuals that may willfully cause an action from objects that cannot. The present fMRI study aimed to shed light on the neural correlates of animacy at a relational-interpretive level, i.e. on the role of animacy in the establishment of relations between entities that are more or less likely to cause an event and differ in their potential to act volitionally. To this end, we investigated the processing of visually presented transitive German sentences (nominative-accusative structures) in which the factors animacy and argument order were manipulated. The relations between the arguments differed in that the animate subject either acted on an inanimate object (a very natural construction in terms of transitivity) or on an animate object (resulting in a sentence deviating from an unmarked transitive structure). Participants performed an acceptability judgment task. Violations of unmarked transitivity yielded a significant activation increase within the posterior left superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), thus suggesting a specific role of this cortical region in the relational use of animacy information. This result indicates that the influence of animacy as a relational feature differs from the impact of this parameter on the word level and is in line with other neuroimaging studies showing an engagement of the pSTS when a matching between syntax and semantics is required. A comparison between object-and subject-initial conditions further revealed a robust effect of argument order in the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus (a subregion of Broca's area), thereby replicating previous findings demonstrating a sensitivity of this region to finegrained language-specific linearization rules.

OBJECTIVE Meyer's loop, the most vulnerable part of the optic radiations during approaches to the temporomedial region, extends to the tip of the temporal horn and is often encountered in epilepsy surgery. The risk of damaging Meyer's loop during transsylvian selective amygdalohippocampectomy peaks while accessing the temporal horn through its roof by opening the inferior limiting sulcus of the insula. In this prospective study, we sought to evaluate and identify the incidence of visual field deficits in a homogeneous group of patients who had temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis and who underwent transsylvian selective amygdalohippocampectomy. METHODS We studied 30 patients who were referred for epilepsy surgery for intractable complex partial and/or secondary generalized seizures and evaluated according to a noninvasive protocol. All patients underwent selective amygdalohippocampectomy for temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis using the standard tr...

Patients with Capgras syndrome regard people whom they know well such as their parents or siblings as imposters. Here we describe a case (DS) of this syndrome who presents several novel features. DS was unusual in that his delusion was modality–specific: he claimed that his parents were imposters when he was looking at them but not when speaking to them on the telephone. Unlike normals, DS's skin conductance responses to photographs of familiar people, including his parents, were not larger in magnitude than ...

Neuroimaging studies have suggested that the auditory cortex is involved in music processing as well as in auditory imagery. We hypothesized that music training may be associated with improved auditory imagery ability. In this study, performance of musically trained and musically naive subjects was compared on: (1) a musical mental imagery task (in which subjects had to mentally compare pitches of notes corresponding to lyrics taken from familiar songs); (2) a non-musical auditory imagery task (in which subjects had to mentally compare the acoustic characteristics of everyday sounds); and (3) a comparable measure of visual imagery (in which subjects had to mentally compare visual forms of objects). The musically trained group did not only perform better on the musical imagery task, but also outperformed musically naive subjects on the non-musical auditory imagery task. In contrast, the two groups did not differ on the visual imagery task. This finding is discussed in relation to theoretical proposals about music processing and brain activity.

Background: A subset of patients with schizophrenia, defined on the basis of longitudinal deficits in self-care, may show a classic (“Kraepelinian”) degenerative course. An independent validator of the phenomenologically defined Kraepelinian subtype might be provided by a structural indicator of possible brain degeneration: ventricular size as measured by computed tomography (CT).Methods: To examine whether Kraepelinian patients would show a differential increase in ventricular size over time, two CT scans were conducted at intervals separated by >4 years, an average of 5 years. Fifty-three male patients with DSM-III-R diagnoses of chronic schizophrenia were subdivided into Kraepelinian (n = 22; mean age = 42 ± 8.6 years) and non-Kraepelinian (n = 31; mean age = 38 ± 12.2 years) subgroups. Kraepelinian patients were defined on the basis of longitudinal criteria: >5 years of complete dependence on others for life necessities and care, lack of employment, and sustained symptomatology. Thirteen normal elderly volunteers (mean age = 60 ± 17.8) were also scanned at 4-year intervals. CT measurements were made by raters without knowledge of subgroup membership. A semiautomated computer program was used to trace the anterior horn, lateral ventricles, and temporal horns for each slice level on which they were clearly seen.Results: The ventricles showed a bilateral increase in size over the 4-year interval in the Kraepelinian subgroup, more marked in the left hemisphere than the right. By contrast, neither the non-Kraepelinian subgroup nor the normal volunteers showed significant CT changes from scan 1 to scan 2.Conclusions: Thus, the longitudinal dysfunctions in self-care that characterize the Kraepelinian patients were associated with an independent indicator of brain abnormality.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that severely disrupts social and cognitive functions. MRI is the method of choice for in vivo and non-invasively investigating human brain morphology in children and adolescents. The authors reviewed structural MRI studies that investigated structural brain anatomy and development in autistic patients. All original MRI research papers involving autistic patients, published from 1966 to May 2003, were reviewed in order to elucidate brain anatomy and development of autism and rated for completeness using a 12-item check-list. Increased total brain, parieto-temporal lobe, and cerebellar hemisphere volumes were the most replicated abnormalities in autism. Interestingly, recent findings suggested that the size of amygdala, hippocampus, and corpus callosum may also be abnormal. It is conceivable that abnormalities in neural network involving fronto-temporo-parietal cortex, limbic system, and cerebellum may underlie the pathophysiology of autism, and that such changes could result from abnormal brain development during early life. Nonetheless, available MRI studies were often conflicting and could have been limited by methodological issues. Future MRI investigations should include well-characterized groups of autistic and matched healthy individuals, while taking into consideration confounding factors such as IQ, and socioeconomic status.

Objectives. The abnormal processing of emotional stimuli is common to a variety of psychiatric disorders. Specifi cally, patients with prominent anxiety symptoms generally overreact to emotional cues, which has been linked to increased amygdala activation. However, in OCD, enhanced responses are predominantly obtained using disease-specifi c stimuli and preferentially involve frontostriatal systems. Methods. We assessed 21 OCD patients and 21 healthy controls with fMRI during an emotional face-processing paradigm involving active response generation to test for alterations in both brain activation and task-induced functional connectivity of the frontal cortex, the amygdala and the fusiform face area. Results. OCD patients showed signifi cantly greater activation of " face-processing " regions including the amygdala, fusiform gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The reciprocal connectivity between face-processing regions was enhanced in OCD. Importantly, we detected signifi cant correlations between patients ' clinical symptom severity and both task-related region activation and network functional connectivity. Conclusions. The results suggest that OCD patients may show enhanced brain responsiveness during emotional face-processing when tasks involve active response generation. Our fi ndings diverge from previously described alterations in anxiety disorders, as patients showed enhanced amygdala-prefrontal connectivity as opposed to negative reciprocal interaction. This pattern would appear to be disorder-specifi c and was signifi cantly related to obsessive-compulsive symptom severity.

Purpose: To determine the cerebral electroencephalography (EEG) substrates of scalp EEG seizure patterns, such as source area and synchrony, and in so doing assess the limitations of scalp seizure recording in the localization of seizure onset zones in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Methods: We recorded simultaneously 26 channels of scalp EEG with subtemporal supplementary electrodes and 46-98 channels of intracranial EEG in presurgical candidates with temporal lobe epilepsy. We correlated intracranial EEG source area and synchrony at seizure onset with the corresponding scalp EEG. Eighty-six simultaneous intracranial-and scalp-recorded seizures from 23 patients were evaluated. Results: Thirty-four intracranial ictal discharges (40%) from 9 patients (39%) had sufficient cortical source area (namely > 10 cm 2 ) and synchrony at seizure onset to produce a simultaneous or nearly simultaneous focal scalp EEG ictal pattern.

The purpose of this study was to define a standardized multiplanar approach for transcranial ultrasound (US) imaging of brain parenchyma based on matched data from 3-D US and 3-D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The potential and limitations of multiple insonation planes in transverse and coronal orientation were evaluated for the visualization of intracranial landmarks in 60 healthy individuals (18 to 83 years old, mean 41.4 years) with sufficient temporal bone windows. Landmarks regularly visualized even in moderate sonographic conditions with identification rates of > 75% were mesencephalon, pons, third ventricle, lateral ventricles, falx, thalamus, basal ganglia, pineal gland and temporal lobe. Identification of medulla oblongata, fourth ventricle, cerebellar structures, hippocampus, insula, frontal, parietal and occipital lobes was more difficult (< 75%). We hypothesize that multiplanar transcranial US images, with standardized specification of tilt angles and orientation, not only allow comparison with other neuroimaging modalities, but may also provide a more objective framework for US monitoring of cerebral disease than freehand scanning. © 2004 World

Many studies have investigated sex differences in language lateralization. Despite the large number of investigations, controversy about the presence of sex differences in lateralization remains. This study aims to provide a complete overview of sex differences in several reflections of language lateralization: handedness, asymmetry of the Planum Temporale (PT) and functional lateralization of language, measured by asymmetric performance on dichotic listening tests (Right Ear Advantage) and asymmetry of language activation as measured with functional imaging techniques. Meta-analysis of studies that assessed handedness in males and females yielded more left-handedness in males (mean weighted odds ratio: 1.25, p b 0.001).

RC is a 36-year-old man who sustained a closed head injury with bilateral frontal lobe hypometabolism in 1978. In 1994, after a lobectomy of a large part of the left frontal lobe, he presented no behavioral disruption and normal performances on most of intelligence, longterm memory, and executive tests. However, he showed deficits in tasks that implicate shortterm storage (i.e., span tasks). These deficits in working memory were explored with regard to Baddeley's model using computerized tasks. On these tasks RC showed normal functioning of the articulatory loops and dysfunction of the central executive component in dual tasks. These results confirm those reported in another single case study by Van Der Linden, Coyette, and Seron (1992) and indicate that dual-task performance may assess one separable feature of executive functions.

Controlling neural representations of the self and other people is fun-damental to social cognition. Brain imaging studies have implicated the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) in this ability, but causal evidence for its role is lacking. A debate is also ongoing regarding whether the control of, or switching between, self and other rep-resentations is a specialized or domain-general process: the rTPJ’s well-established role in reorienting attention supports a domain-general process, but a role specific to social cognition has also been proposed. Neuronavigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimu-lation was used to target the rTPJ (and a control mid-occipital site) during a task requiring participants to switch between represen-tations of others ’ actions on both a social and a nonsocial level, by manipulating imitative and spatial compatibility simultaneously and independently. Both imitative and spatial compatibility effects were apparent on response times; however, the eff...

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by callous lack of empathy, impulsive antisocial behavior, and criminal recidivism. Here, we performed the largest diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study of incarcerated criminal offenders to date (N 5 147) to determine whether psychopathy severity is linked to the microstructural integrity of major white matter tracts in the brain. Consistent with the results of previous studies in smaller samples, we found that psychopathy was associated with reduced fractional anisotropy in the right uncinate fasciculus (UF; the major white matter tract connecting ventral frontal and anterior temporal cortices). We found no such association in the left UF or in adjacent frontal or temporal white matter tracts. Moreover, the right UF finding was specifically related to the interpersonal features of psychopathy (glib superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, manipulativeness), rather than the affective, antisocial, or lifestyle features. These results indicate a neural marker for this key dimension of psychopathic symptomatology. Hum Brain Mapp 00:000-000, 2015.

As individuals who abuse methamphetamine (MA) often exhibit socially maladaptive behaviors such as violence and aggression, it is possible that they respond abnormally to social cues. To investigate this issue, we exposed 12 MA-dependent participants (abstinent 5-16 days) and 12 healthy comparison participants to fearful and angry faces while they performed an affect matching task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Although the groups did not differ in task performance, the healthy participants showed more task-related activity than the MA-dependent participants in a set of cortical regions consisting of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ), anterior and posterior temporal cortex, and fusiform gyrus in the right hemisphere, and the cuneus in the left hemisphere. In contrast, the MA-dependent participants showed more task-related activity than the healthy participants in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). As expected, the task elicited activation of the amygdala in both groups; however, contrary to expectation, we found no difference between groups in this activation. Dorsal ACC hyperactivity, along with high self-ratings of hostility and interpersonal sensitivity in the MA-dependent group, suggest a hyper-sensitivity to socially threatening cues in the MA-dependent participants, while lower VLPFC activation could point to a deficit in integrating socio-emotional information and/or regulating this limbic hyperactivity. Additional activation differences in neural circuitry related to social cognition (TPJ, anterior, and posterior temporal cortex) suggest further socio-emotional deficits. Together, the results point to cortical abnormalities that could underlie the socially inappropriate behaviors often shown by individuals who abuse MA.

Dissociations in the recognition of specific classes of words have been documented in brain-injured populations. These include deficits in the recognition and production of morphologically complex words as well as impairments specific to particular syntactic classes such as verbs. However, functional imaging evidence for distinctions among the neural systems underlying these dissociations has been inconclusive. We explored the neural systems involved in processing different word classes in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study, contrasting four groups of words co-varying morphological complexity (simple, monomorphemic words vs complex derived or inflected words) and syntactic class (verbs vs nouns/adjectives). Subtraction of word from letter string processing showed activation in left frontal and temporal lobe regions consistent with prior studies of visual word processing. No differences were observed for morphologically complex and simple words, despite adequate power to detect stimulus specific effects. A region of posterior left middle temporal gyrus showed significantly increased activation for verbs. Post hoc analyses showed that this elevated activation could also be related to semantic properties of the stimulus items (verbs have stronger action associations than nouns, and action association is correlated with activation). Results suggest that semantic as well as syntactic factors should be considered when assessing the neural systems involved in single word comprehension.

Summary: We report a case of a hypothalamic chiasmatic ganglioglioma in a 21-year-old woman who presented with hyperprolactinemia and developed visual field defects. This circumscribed cystic lesion with an enhancing mural nod- ule was radiologically indistinguishable from a pilocytic as- trocytoma. Although rare, gangliogliomas should be in- cluded in the differential diagnosis of lesions occurring in this area of the brain. Gangliogliomas, although relatively rare, are the most frequently occurring mixed glioneuronal tu- mors of the CNS (1). Their incidence ranges from 0.4% to 1.3% of all brain tumors, but they are more common in the pediatric group, with an incidence of 7.6% (2, 3). Patients usually present with sei- zures (2). The temporal lobes are the most common site, but gangliogliomas can occur anywhere in the central neuraxis, including the brain stem and spi- nal cord (1). We report a case of a ganglioglioma arising in the hypothalamic chiasmatic region and its MR imaging...

It is commonly found that memory for context declines disproportionately with aging, arguably due to a general age-related deficit in associative memory processes. One possible mechanism for such deficits is an age-related reduction in available processing resources. In two experiments we compared the effects of aging to the effects of division of attention in younger adults on memory for items and context. Using a technique proposed by Craik (1989), linear functions relating memory performance for items and their contexts were derived for a Young Full Attention group, a Young Divided Attention group, and an Older Adult group. Results suggested that the Old group showed an additional deficit in associative memory that was not mimicked by divided attention. It is speculated that both divided attention and aging are associated with a loss of available processing resources that may reflect inefficient frontal lobe functioning, whereas the additional age-related decrement in associative...