Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2014 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 6 Articles
Introduction: The aim of the present study was to evaluate color perception thresholds and relate them to the\ndegree of motor impairment in children with spastic cerebral palsy (SCP).\nMethods: Binocular and monocular chromaticity discrimination thresholds were estimated for the protan, deutan,\nand tritan color confusion axes in 43 SCP children aged 6ââ?¬â??15 years who were classified as tetraplegic (n = 12),\ndiplegic (n = 16), and hemiplegic (n = 15) without ophthalmological complaints. Motor impairment was rated\naccording to the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) in five levels of severity.\nResults: Analysis of variance showed significantly reduced discrimination in tetraplegic children (p < 0.001)\ncompared with the diplegic, hemiplegic, and control groups. We also found a positive correlation between\nchromaticity discrimination thresholds and GMFCS ratings in all of the groups.\nDiscussion: Chromaticity discrimination thresholds measured psychophysically were reduced for all three color\nconfusion axis in tetraplegic children compared with normal children. Diplegic and hemiplegic children had\nsimilar results as normal children. The finding of a correlation between quantified motor impairment and color\ndiscrimination losses in SCP patients is a new observation that might help elucidate the causes of color perception\nloss in these patients. Visual information is essential for the rehabilitation of CP children. Knowledge of the degree\nof correlation between vision and motor impairment is valuable when planning a rehabilitation program....
Background: Working memory, inhibition, and expressive language are often impaired in ADHD and many\nchildren with ADHD have lower IQ-scores than typically developing children. The aim of this study was to test\nwhether IQ-score influences associations between ADHD symptoms and verbal and nonverbal working memory,\ninhibition, and expressive language, respectively, in a nonclinical sample of preschool children.\nMethods: In all, 1181 children recruited from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were clinically\nassessed at the age of 36 to 46 months. IQ-score and working memory were assessed with subtasks from the\nStanford Binet test battery, expressive language was reported by preschool teachers (Child Development Inventory),\nresponse inhibition was assessed with a subtask from the NEPSY test, and ADHD symptoms were assessed by\nparent interview (Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment).\nResults: The results showed an interaction between ADHD symptoms and IQ-score on teacher-reported expressive\nlanguage. In children with below median IQ-score, a larger number of ADHD symptoms were more likely to be\naccompanied by reports of lower expressive language skills, while the level of ADHD symptoms exerted a smaller\neffect on reported language skills in children with above median IQ-score. The associations between ADHD\nsymptoms and working memory and response inhibition, respectively, were not influenced by IQ-score.\nConclusions: Level of IQ-score affected the relation between ADHD symptoms and teacher-reported expressive\nlanguage, whereas associations between ADHD symptoms and working memory and response inhibition,\nrespectively, were significant and of similar sizes regardless of IQ-score. Thus, in preschoolers, working memory and\nresponse inhibition should be considered during an ADHD assessment regardless of IQ-score, while language skills\nof young children are especially important to consider when IQ-scores are average or low....
Metoclopramide is the prokinetic antiemetic drug which acts by blocking central dopaminergic receptors and is known to cause extra pyramidal symptoms (EPS) especially dystonia. They occur in 1% of patients given metoclopramide as anti-emetic in the medical ward. This neurological case study is about a young male patient who received only one dose of IV metoclopramide and developed acute dystonia. Symptoms disappeared after one dose of 50 mg I.V promethazine was given. A neurological rating scale called as extra pyramidal symptoms rating scale (ESRS) was used to assess EPS. Acute dystonia poses a serious challenge in the medical ward due to more chances of misdiagnosis such as seizures or psychogenic disorder (hysteria), stroke, tetanus, meningitis etc....
Objective: While Parkinson�s disease (PD) has traditionally been described as a movement disorder, there is\ngrowing evidence of disruption in emotion information processing associated with the disease. The aim of this\nstudy was to investigate whether there are specific electroencephalographic (EEG) characteristics that discriminate\nPD patients and normal controls during emotion information processing.\nMethod: EEG recordings from 14 scalp sites were collected from 20 PD patients and 30 age-matched normal\ncontrols. Multimodal (audio-visual) stimuli were presented to evoke specific targeted emotional states such as\nhappiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. Absolute and relative power, frequency and asymmetry\nmeasures derived from spectrally analyzed EEGs were subjected to repeated ANOVA measures for group\ncomparisons as well as to discriminate function analysis to examine their utility as classification indices. In addition,\nsubjective ratings were obtained for the used emotional stimuli.\nResults: Behaviorally, PD patients showed no impairments in emotion recognition as measured by subjective\nratings. Compared with normal controls, PD patients evidenced smaller overall relative delta, theta, alpha and beta\npower, and at bilateral anterior regions smaller absolute theta, alpha, and beta power and higher mean total\nspectrum frequency across different emotional states. Inter-hemispheric theta, alpha, and beta power asymmetry\nindex differences were noted, with controls exhibiting greater right than left hemisphere activation. Whereas\nintra-hemispheric alpha power asymmetry reduction was exhibited in patients bilaterally at all regions. Discriminant\nanalysis correctly classified 95.0% of the patients and controls during emotional stimuli.\nConclusion: These distributed spectral powers in different frequency bands might provide meaningful information\nabout emotional processing in PD patients....
Background: Effective integration of visual information is necessary to utilize abstract thinking, but patients with\nschizophrenia have slow eye movement and usually explore limited visual information. This study examines the\nrelationship between abstract thinking ability and the pattern of eye gaze in patients with schizophrenia using a\nnovel theme identification task.\nMethods: Twenty patients with schizophrenia and 22 healthy controls completed the theme identification task, in\nwhich subjects selected which word, out of a set of provided words, best described the theme of a picture. Eye\ngaze while performing the task was recorded by the eye tracker.\nResults: Patients exhibited a significantly lower correct rate for theme identification and lesser fixation and saccade\ncounts than controls. The correct rate was significantly correlated with the fixation count in patients, but not in controls.\nConclusions: Patients with schizophrenia showed impaired abstract thinking and decreased quality of gaze, which were\npositively associated with each other. Theme identification and eye gaze appear to be useful as tools for the objective\nmeasurement of abstract thinking in patients with schizophrenia....
Background: Recent studies suggest that Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is an impulse disorder, or is at least\nrelated to impulse control disorders. In the present study, we hypothesized that different facets of trait impulsivity\nmay be specifically linked to the brain regions with impaired impulse inhibition function in IGA adolescents.\nMethods: Seventeen adolescents with IGA and seventeen healthy controls were scanned during performance of a\nresponse-inhibition Go/No-Go task using a 3.0 T MRI scanner. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS)-11 was used to\nassess impulsivity.\nResults: There were no differences in the behavioral performance on the Go/No-Go task between the groups.\nHowever, the IGA group was significantly hyperactive during No-Go trials in the left superior medial frontal gyrus,\nright anterior cingulate cortex, right superior/middle frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, left precentral gyrus,\nand left precuneus and cuneus. Further, the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, and\nright superior parietal lobule were significantly hypoactive during No-Go trials. Activation of the left superior medial\nfrontal gyrus was positively associated with BIS-11 and Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) total score across IGA\nparticipants.\nConclusions: Our data suggest that the prefrontal cortex may be involved in the circuit modulating impulsivity,\nwhile its impaired function may relate to high impulsivity in adolescents with IGA, which may contribute directly to\nthe Internet addiction process....
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