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Biomedical subjects

Akira Midorikawa

Publications and source records attributed to Akira Midorikawa.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

[Parallel processing of motion vision].

Several neuropsychological studies have reported dissociation between motion vision and object vision. One patient with motion blindness had a bilateral MT/V5 lesion and could see objects, but could not see the motion of the objects (Zihl et al, 1983). By contrast, some blindsight patients with primary visual cortex lesions cannot see objects but can see their movement (e.g. Riddoch, 1917). These results imply that movement vision and form vision rely on independent mechanisms. However one patient with motion blindness had controversial symptoms concerning motion vision. She could not perceive the movement of objects, although she could walk without colliding with obstacles and could catch incoming objects. It has also been reported that patients with a bilateral parietal lesion had well-preserved primary motion vision, but had problems walking and catching a ball (Vaina, 1998). Therefore, motion for vision and motion for action might have independent mechanisms. Such dissociation has also been noted in patients with Bálint syndrome. Some patients behave like a blind person but can walk and catch a ball, while other patients bump into obstacles while walking. These results indicate that the neural bases of motion vision are distinct from those of form vision and that there are subdivisions of motion vision.

Agnosia↗

Disappearance of memory fragments in patients with Alzheimer's disease: evidence from a longitudinal study of visual priming.

Previous studies suggested that perceptual memory as indexed by visual priming is normal in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, these studies did not specifically test the long-term effects of visual priming, which may differ significantly between Alzheimer's patients and normal subjects. To test this possibility, we examined long-term visual priming in AD patients, 1 hour, 1 month, and 3 months after training. Our results indicated a significant difference in visual priming between AD patients and normal subjects after 3 months, but not 1 month. For AD patients, there was a strong positive correlation between the 3-month priming effect and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores-severely demented patients were less likely to exhibit priming after 3 months. It appears that severe cortical degeneration may render AD patients unable to consolidate their perceptual memories. Our results suggest that lack of visual priming in AD patients is linked to the inability to maintain fragmented perceptual memories.

Aged↗

A disconnection syndrome due to agenesis of the corpus callosum: disturbance of unilateral synchronization.

Recently, interhemispheric disconnection syndromes have been noted in patients with agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) during the performance of certain tasks. However, few studies have demonstrated an asymmetric disconnection syndrome. In this report, we present just such a syndrome in a patient with ACC, who manifested ambidexterity (but with a left-hand tendency) and had high intelligence, no neurological deficits, and no associated malformations. In a comparison with similar subjects (amateur musician), we studied her asymmetric deficits using four tasks: (1) simple reaction time for visual stimuli, (2) paced finger tapping in synchrony with visual or auditory stimuli, (3) paced finger tapping without an external reference, and (4) rhythmical finger tapping in synchrony with visual or auditory stimuli. While the comparable subjects displayed no significant difference between hands, and the patient showed no significant difference between hands in the auditory paradigm, her tapping performance deteriorated significantly when asked to synchronize the left hand with timed visual stimuli, irrespective of whether finger tapping was paced or rhythmical. We believe that this phenomenon constitutes a novel asymmetrical disconnection syndrome in an ACC subject; these results suggest that synchronization of multimodal temporal information was lateralized in the left hemisphere (in this case), which is something that the ACC patient could not compensate for.

Adult↗

Musical alexia for rhythm notation: a discrepancy between pitch and rhythm.

In the process of reading music, the reading of rhythm and pitch might be differentiated, although there is no evidence of this to date. There have been cases of disorders restricted to the reading of pitch, but none in which the disorder has been restricted to the reading of rhythm. We present a case of musical alexia and agraphia with Wernicke's aphasia. An in-depth assessment of the subject's musical reading ability showed that her musical alexia was restricted to unfamiliar melodies. When a melody was divided into rhythm elements and pitch elements, pitch reading was preserved, but rhythm reading was severely disturbed. This is the first case reported of a disorder restricted to rhythm reading, and suggests the independence of rhythm reading and pitch reading.

Aphasia, Wernicke↗