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Lobe Dysfunction (lobe + dysfunction)
Kinds of Lobe Dysfunction Selected AbstractsDisease, deficit or denial?ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 1 2005Models of poor insight in psychosis Objective:, To examine the evidence for the three kinds of aetiological model that dominate the current literature on poor insight in psychosis: clinical models, the neuropsychological model, and the psychological denial model. Method:, Studies pertaining to one or more of these aetiological models were identified, reviewed and critically evaluated. Results:, There is little support for clinical models, partly because they lack testable hypotheses. Several studies reveal a positive relationship between insight and executive function, which may be related to frontal lobe dysfunction. However, the extent to which this relationship is specific and independent of general cognitive impairment remains unclear. There is tentative evidence to support the psychological denial model. Recent data combining the latter two approaches suggest that multiple factors contribute to poor insight. Conclusion:, Integration of different aetiological models is necessary for a fuller understanding of insight in psychosis. Future research should assess multiple aetiological mechanisms in single investigations. [source] Clinical, neuropsychological, neurophysiologic, and genetic features of a new Italian pedigree with familial cortical myoclonic tremor with epilepsyEPILEPSIA, Issue 5 2009Antonio Suppa Summary We studied the clinical, neuropsychological, neurophysiologic, and genetic features of an Italian family with familial cortical myoclonic tremor with epilepsy (FCMTE). Clinically affected members of the family had limb and voice tremor, seizures, and myoclonus involving the eyelids during blinking. Neuropsychological testing disclosed visuospatial impairment, possibly due to temporal lobe dysfunction. Neurophysiologic findings suggested increased primary motor cortex excitability with normal sensorimotor integration. Linkage analysis excluded the 8q24 locus, where patients shared a common haplotype spanning 14.5 Mb in the pericentromeric region of chromosome 2. [source] Cerebral blood flow in patients with diffuse axonal injury , examination of the easy Z -score imaging system utilityEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 5 2007T. Okamoto To evaluate the utility of easy Z -score imaging system (eZIS) in 27 diffuse axonal injury (DAI) cases. Twenty-seven DAI patients were examined with an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) T2* sequence and with eZIS (seven women, 20 men; age range, 19,35 years; median age: 26.6 years). In this investigation, we excluded patients who exhibited complications such as acute subdural hematoma, acute epidural hematoma, intracerebral hematoma, or brain contusion. We examined the neuropsychological tests and correlated with findings from MRI/eZIS. Furthermore, we evaluated the degree of ventricular enlargement in the bifrontal cerebroventricular index (CVI). Patients were divided into two groups: the enlargement group (bifrontal CVI > 35%, 12 patients) and the non-enlargement group (bifrontal CVI < 35%, 15 patients). All of the patients showed cognitive deficits as observed from the neuropsycological test results. Fifteen out of 27 patients by MRI T1/T2 weighted images and fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), 22 out of 27 patients by MRI T2* weighted images and 24 out of 27 patients by eZIS showed abnormal findings. In MRI T2* weighted imaging, the white matter from the frontal lobe, corpus callosum, and brainstem showed abnormal findings. With eZIS, 22 patients (81.5%) showed blood flow degradation in the frontal lobe, and 12 patients (44.4%) in cingulate gyrus. In the enlargement group, Functional Independence Measure, Mini-Mental State Examination, Verbal IQ (VIQ)/Full Scale IQ (FIQ), Trail Making Test-B (TMT-B), and Non-paired of Miyake Paired Test were significantly lower. Amongst 12 patients without ventricular enlargement who had no abnormal findings in MRI T1/T2 weighted images and FLAIR, abnormal findings were detectable in seven patients with MRI T2* weighted imaging and to 10 patients with eZIS. Results of the MRI examination alone cannot fully explain DAI frontal lobe dysfunction. However, addition of the eZIS-assisted analysis derived from the single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) data enabled us to understand regions where blood flow was decreased, i.e., where neuronal functions conceivably might be reduced. [source] Superior temporal lobe dysfunction and frontotemporal dysconnectivity in subjects at risk of psychosis and in first-episode psychosisHUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 12 2009Nicolas A. Crossley Abstract Background: Superior temporal lobe dysfunction is a robust finding in functional neuroimaging studies of schizophrenia and is thought to be related to a disruption of fronto-temporal functional connectivity. However, the stage of the disorder at which these functional alterations occur is unclear. We addressed this issue by using functional MRI (fMRI) to study subjects in the prodromal and first episode phases of schizophrenia. Methods: Subjects with an at risk mental state (ARMS) for psychosis, a first psychotic episode (FEP), and controls were studied using fMRI while performing a working memory task. Activation in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) was assessed using statistical parametric mapping, and its relationship to frontal activation was examined using dynamic causal modeling. Results: The STG was differentially engaged across the three groups. There was deactivation of this region during the task in controls, whereas subjects with FEP showed activation and the response in subjects with ARMS was intermediately relative to the two other groups. There were corresponding differences in the effective connectivity between the STG and the middle frontal gyrus across the three groups, with a negative coupling between these areas in controls, a positive coupling in the FEP group, and an intermediate value in the ARMS group. Conclusions: A failure to deactivate the superior temporal lobe during tasks that engage prefrontal cortex is evident at the onset of schizophrenia and may reflect a disruption of fronto-temporal connectivity. Qualitatively similar alterations are evident in people with prodromal symptoms of the disorder. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Apathy and cognitive performance in older adults with depressionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 6 2003Denise Feil Abstract Objectives Recent studies have linked apathy to frontal lobe dysfunction in persons with dementia, but few studies have explored this relationship in older, depressed persons without dementia. We examined the association between apathy and cognitive function in a group of older persons with major depression using standardized neuropsychological tests. We hypothesized that presence of apathy in depression is associated with poorer frontal executive performance. Methods We analyzed data from 89 older adults with major depression. We defined apathy using four items from the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression which reflect the clinical state of apathy, including ,diminished work/interest,' ,psychomotor retardation,' ,anergy' and ,lack of insight.' Results Apathy most strongly correlated with two verbal executive measures (Stroop C and FAS), a nonverbal executive measure (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test,Other Responses), and a measure of information processing speed (Stroop B). Apathy was not associated with age, sex, education, medical illness burden, Mini-Mental State Examination score and Full Scale IQ score. Stepwise regression analyses of significant cognitive tests showed that apathy alone or apathy plus depression severity, age, or education accounted for a significant amount of the variance. Conclusions The results of this study provide support for an apathy syndrome associated with poorer executive function in older adults with major depression. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Suicidal ideation and frontal lobe dysfunction: a study examining the relationship between clinical frontal lobe tests depression and suicidal ideationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 6 2003S. Belderbos No abstract is available for this article. [source] Freezing of gait and executive functions in patients with Parkinson's diseaseMOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 3 2008Marianna Amboni MD Abstract Freezing of gait (FOG) is a frequent, disabling symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). FOG usually lasts a few seconds. It refers to brief paroxysmal events during which a subject is unable to start or continue locomotion. Despite its frequency, FOG pathophysiology is unclear. Because a frontal lobe dysfunction or a disconnection between the frontal lobe and basal ganglia has been implicated in FOG, we explored frontal functions in PD patients using neuropsychological tests. Thirteen early-stage PD patients [Hoehn & Yahr score (H&Y) , 2.5] with freezing during "on " state (FOG+), and 15 age-, H&Y score-, and disease-duration-matched PD patients without freezing (FOG,) were investigated. No patient was demented or depressed. Assessment included the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), FOG questionnaire, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), frontal assessment battery (FAB), phonemic verbal fluency, Stroop test (parts II and III), and ten-point clock test (TPCT). UPDRS and MMSE scores did not differ between the two groups. FAB, verbal fluency, and TPCT scores were significantly lower in FOG+ patients than in FOG, patients (FAB: P = 0.008; phonemic verbal fluency: P = 0.011; TPCT: P = 0.024). FOG correlated with lower scores at frontal tests in patients with early-stage PD. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society [source] Characterizing behavioral and cognitive dysexecutive changes in progressive supranuclear palsyMOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 2 2006David Millar DClinPsy Abstract Frontal lobe dysfunction is a prominent feature of many neurological disorders. Early diagnosis may be enhanced by establishing a profile of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional change. Traditional psychometric assessment focuses on cognitive dysfunction and fails to identify behavioral changes, particularly those associated with orbitofrontal dysfunction. We examined progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a prototypical subcortical dementia with frontal features, using commonly available neuropsychological measures and a modification of the Katz Adjustment Scale-Relatives (KAS-R), an instrument first developed to assess dysexecutive changes in head-injured patients. Executive tests identified deficits in reasoning, planning, set shifting, verbal fluency, information processing speed, and response initiation. On the KAS-R, changes in apathy, social withdrawal, and independence were observed, with little change in belligerence, social irresponsibility, uncooperativeness, obstreperousness, anxiety, and depression. The results show the potential utility of this instrument in characterizing behavioral and emotional changes associated with frontal lobe dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease. © 2005 Movement Disorder Society [source] Error rate on the antisaccade task: Heritability and developmental change in performance among preadolescent and late-adolescent female twin youthPSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 5 2002Stephen M. Malone We examined heritability of error rate on the antisaccade task among female twin youths. This task appears to be sensitive to prefrontal functioning, providing a measure of individual differences in inhibitory control associated with genetic risk for schizophrenia. The sample consisted of 674 11-year-olds and 616 17-year-olds, comprising the two cohorts of female twins from the Minnesota Twin Family Study, a population-based investigation of substance abuse and related psychopathology. We used biometric model-fitting methods to determine the relative magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on performance. In both age cohorts, the best fitting model contained additive genes and nonshared environment. Despite substantial age-related differences in mean performance levels (effect size = .81), additive genes accounted for greater than half the variance in performance in both age cohorts. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that antisaccade error rate might serve as an endophenotype for behavior disorders reflecting frontal lobe dysfunction or problems with inhibitory control. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||