Biomedical subjects

C Junqué

Publications and source records attributed to C Junqué.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2001

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in Parkinson's disease.

To systematically investigate obsessive-compulsive traits in Parkinson's disease, patients were administered the Maudsley obsessional-compulsive inventory (MOCI) and a modification of the Leyton obsessional inventory (LOI) to a sample of non-demented and non-depressed patients with Parkinson's disease. Patients with severe Parkinson's disease showed more obsessive traits than normal controls in MOCI and LOI total scores, and in the "checking", "doubting", and "cleaning" subscales of the MOCI. By contrast, patients with mild disease did not differ from controls. A significant correlation was found between severity and duration of illness and MOCI total score. These results support the involvement of basal ganglia in obsessive-compulsive symptomatology. As patients with mild Parkinson's disease did not differ from controls, obsessive-compulsive disorder does not seem to be directly related to the initial nigrostriatal dopaminergic deficiency which causes clinical Parkinson's disease symptomatology. The appearance of obsessive symptoms could be related to the subset of neurochemical changes taking place at the level of the basal ganglia circuitry as disease progresses.

Female↗

PubMed2001

MRI atrophy parameters related to cognitive and motor impairment in Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) show specific neuropsychological deficits in attention, memory, visuospatial or frontal lobe functions, which can arise from degeneration of different cerebral structures. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to analyze the role of focal degeneration (basal ganglia and substantia nigra) and diffuse cerebral atrophy (ventricular enlargement) in motor/cognitive impairment in PD. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We administered to 14 patients with advanced PD the following tests: Purdue Pegboard, Rey's Auditory-Verbal Learning test (RAVLT), Benton's Line Orientation, Trail Making, phonemic verbal fluency and Stroop test. Ventricular system, caudate and putamen nuclei and pars compacta of the substantia nigra were quantitatively measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Correlation analyses were carried out. RESULTS: The results showed that ventricular enlargement is negatively correlated with the performance on RAVLT and Stroop test. No relationship was found between caudate atrophy and cognitive deficits. Degeneration of putamen nucleus was found to be associated with motor deficits. CONCLUSION: Memory and frontal impairment are related to diffuse cerebral degeneration and the motor deficit is related to degeneration of the putamen nucleus.

Aged↗

PubMed2000

Angiotensin I converting enzyme polymorphism in humans with age-associated memory impairment: relationship with cognitive performance.

We compared the distribution of an insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism coding for the angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) gene in 100 subjects fulfilling NIMH criteria for Age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) and 124 controls. We found significantly reduced prevalences of the ACE I/I genotype together with increases of the ACE D allele in the AAMI group. We further compared the neuropsychological performance of the AAMI group according to their ACE genotype. Those AAMI subjects presenting the ACE I/I genotype exhibited better performance on a measure of frontal lobe function. Our results suggest that the lack of the ACE I/I genotype and the presence of the ACE D allele are associated with memory impairment in the elderly.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2000

Effects of unilateral posteroventral pallidotomy on 'on-off' cognitive fluctuations in Parkinson's disease.

In Parkinson's disease, cognitive performance can vary according to levodopa levels (on-off states). Both positive and negative effects of dopaminergic stimulation have been reported. Pallidotomy is also able to change cognitive performance, in addition to levodopa pharmacokinetics. The aim of this investigation was to study the effects of pallidotomy on cognitive on-off fluctuations in Parkinson's disease. A brief neuropsychological battery was administered to 15 PD patients during on and off states before and after surgery. Before pallidotomy, patients performed better in the on condition on Trail Making test B; after pallidotomy levodopa no longer improved performance, and the interaction between surgery and state was significant. In relation to the difference between preoperative and postoperative performance in Trail Making B test, there was a significant postsurgical improvement only in off state. Verbal fluency decreased after pallidotomy in both on and off conditions. Our results suggest that pallidotomy can change the effects of levodopa on neuropsychological functions.

Aged↗

PubMed2000

Age effects on long-term neuropsychological outcome in paediatric traumatic brain injury.

In order to investigate the relationship between age at injury and long-term neuropsychological impairment, 29 children and adolescents who sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) were studied at least 6 years post-trauma. Tests of intellectual, memory, visuospatial and frontal lobe functions were administered to patients and 29 normal matched control subjects. Correlations between performance on neuropsychological tests and age showed the following direction: the younger the child when TBI was sustained, the worse the cognitive outcome. After controlling for injury severity, visuospatial functions remained related to age. Patients' performance differed significantly from that of controls in half of the neuropsychological variables analysed. To further investigate the effects of age at injury, the sample was divided in two groups (TBI before and after age of 8) and then compared with their respective controls. Patients damaged earlier presented impaired intellectual and visuospatial functions. The results suggest that neuropsychological sequelae remain after at least 6 years of evolution, and that there is an age at injury effect.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Cognitive changes after cerebrospinal fluid shunting in young adults with spina bifida and assumed arrested hydrocephalus.

OBJECTIVES: To establish whether surgery can improve the neuropsychological functioning of young adult patients with spina bifida and apparent clinically arrested hydrocephalus showing abnormal intracranial pressure. METHODS: Twenty three young adults with spina bifida and assumed arrested hydrocephalus (diagnosed as active or compensated by continuous intracranial pressure monitoring) underwent surgery. All patients received neuropsychological examination before surgery and 6 months later. Neuropsychological assessment included tests of verbal and visual memory, visuospatial functions, speed of mental processing, and frontal lobe functions. RESULTS: Shunt placement in this subgroup of patients improves neuropsychological functioning, especially in verbal and visual memory and attention and cognitive flexibility. CONCLUSIONS: Young adults with spina bifida and suspected non-functioning shunt or non-shunted ventriculomegaly should be carefully monitored to identify those who could benefit from shunting.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Apo E influences declarative and procedural learning in age-associated memory impairment.

Age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) is a clinical entity which was originally described to define memory problems linked to normal aging. Apolipoprotein E and ACE genes have both been associated with cognitive impairment in aging and dementia. The purpose of this study was to investigate memory and executive functions in AAMI according to the genetic background. We found that subjects carrying the Apo E epsilon4 allele exhibit lower memory performance on tests of both declarative and procedural memory. We did not find differences on frontal lobe tests. These findings give further support to the hypothesis concerning a genetic susceptibility for cognitive impairment in aging.

Aged↗

PubMed1999

Neuropsychological functioning in a subclinical obsessive-compulsive sample.

BACKGROUND: Previous neuropsychological research has suggested that the study of psychometrically defined subclinical samples might be a valid approach to understand the underlying pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This approach has the potential benefit of overcoming some of the methodological problems linked to the use of clinical samples. METHODS: A group of subclinical obsessive-compulsive (OC) subjects (n = 35), selected on the basis of their scores on the Padua Inventory, and a control group were assessed on executive functioning tasks and other neuropsychological tests which have been demonstrated to be impaired in clinical OCD patients and/or in those with several basal ganglia disorders. RESULTS: Subclinical OC subjects needed significantly more moves than controls to reach the solution criteria on the Tower of Hanoi puzzle, and performance on this test was positively correlated with total score and the Checking factor of the Padua Inventory. There were no between-group differences on the other frontal lobe tests. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that deficits in manipulating spatial information might be basic in OCD, and are congruent with the involvement of the frontostriatal circuits in the disorder.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Cognitive and behavioral changes after unilateral posteroventral pallidotomy: relationship with lesional data from MRI.

We investigated cognitive and behavioral changes after unilateral posteroventral pallidotomy, and their relationship with lesion size and location as identified in magnetic resonance image quantitative analysis. Fifteen consecutive patients with Parkinson's disease were assessed neuropsychologically before and after unilateral posteroventral pallidotomy (five right and 10 left). Immediate postsurgery evaluation (1 week) demonstrated significant worsening of memory, motor learning, motor speed, and verbal fluency. In the 3-month follow up, learning, memory, and speed returned to the presurgical level, but verbal fluency remained below the baseline. Significant improvements were observed in visuospatial functions and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Lesional volume did not correlate with neuropsychologic changes. Left lesions produced more impairment in verbal fluency than right-sided lesions. Regression analysis identified two lesional areas in the pallidum mediale internum. These regions accounted for 68% of the variance in the visuospatial changes.

Aged↗

PubMed1999

Reduced design fluency in subclinical obsessive-compulsive subjects.

This study examined the verbal and design fluency abilities of 25 subclinical obsessive-compulsive (OC) subjects and 27 noncompulsive control subjects. As hypothesized, the OC group showed reduced design fluency, and design fluency was also negatively correlated with obsessionality. These results provide further evidence for the involvement of the right corticostriatal systems in the mediation of OC behaviors, extending the findings to individuals with subclinical symptoms.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Overestimation and unreliability in "feeling-of-doing" judgements about temporal ordering performance: impaired self-awareness following frontal lobe damage.

"Feeling-of-doing" accuracy in a temporal ordering task in 33 patients with frontal lobe lesions and a matched control group was investigated. The temporal ordering task used word lists that had high, medium, or no semantic interrelatedness. Patients with frontal lobe lesions showed an impairment in temporal ordering across all three word lists. Both groups performed better on the lists with higher semantic interrelatedness. Patients with frontal lobe lesions overestimated their ability to order words accurately. On the less semantically interrelated lists, metamemory judgment in patients with frontal lesions did not correlate with their performance. These results indicate that both temporal order judgment and metacognitive decisions about temporal order judgment are subserved by the prefrontal cortex and further clarifies the role of the frontal lobes in behavioral monitoring.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Neuropsychological differences in epileptic patients with seizures of frontal and temporal lobe origin.

This investigation studied the neuropsychological differences in nonsurgical cryptogenic epileptic patients with seizures of frontal and temporal lobe origin, which were classified according to clinical criteria. Fifty-one patients with partial seizures of frontal (n = 15) or temporal (n = 36) lobe origin and 2 matched control groups were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests assessing intelligence, memory, perceptual, and frontal functions. Patients with seizures of temporal lobe onset performed worse than patients with seizures of frontal lobe origin, even in frontal functions. The findings of this study corroborate the low specificity of tasks regarded as frontal lobe tests and the difficulty in detecting frontal lobe neuropsychological focalities.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1997

Hemispheric functional imbalance in a sub-clinical obsessive-compulsive sample assessed by the Continuous Performance Test, Identical Pairs version.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) sufferers have long been observed to give excessive consideration to normally ignored exogenous and endogenous stimuli. This over-focused attention concerning their symptoms has led researchers to experimentally investigate the attentional mechanisms involved in this disorder and its psychobiological basis. Previous psychometric and neuropsychological research has demonstrated the validity of the sub-clinical analogue in the study of the mechanisms underlying OCD. In this study, 71 introductory university students were recruited from an original pool of 450 people on the basis of their scores on the Spanish version of the Padua Inventory. A high obsessive group (n = 35) was compared with a control group (n = 36) on a standard sustained attention task: the Continuous Performance Test, Identical Pairs version (CPT-IP). The results showed a significant interaction effect between CPT-IP subscales (verbal and spatial) and group membership. This effect was more evident among men. The results were unrelated to general intelligence, depression, anxiety, personality or motivational factors. These findings support the hypothesis that neuropsychological deficits in OCD may be related to a hemispheric functional imbalance rather than to a lateralised dysfunction of a particular hemisphere.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Magnetic resonance imaging measurement of the caudate nucleus in adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and its relationship with neuropsychological and behavioral measures.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate structural basal ganglia abnormalities in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their relationship with the neuropsychological deficits and behavioral problems found in ADHD. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Adolescents were recruited from a local polytechnic institute of secondary education. SUBJECTS: Eleven adolescents with ADHD and 19 healthy control subjects. Subjects with ADHD were diagnosed by the school psychologist from a total population of 450 students according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised. Diagnosis was confirmed by the Conners Teachers Rating Scale and a structured family interview. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Magnetic resonance imaging single-slice transversal measurements of the head of the caudate nucleus and a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation, which was specially designed to assess frontal-striatal functioning. RESULTS: The ADHD group had a larger right caudate nucleus area than the control group. In control adolescents, larger caudate nucleus areas were associated with poorer performance on tests of attention and higher ratings on the Conners Teachers Rating Scale. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide further evidence of the involvement of the caudate nucleus in the neuropsychological deficits and behavioral problems found in ADHD. The larger caudate nucleus found in the ADHD group could be related to a failure of the maturational processes that normally result in volume reduction.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Impaired estimation of word occurrence frequency in frontal lobe patients.

Neuroanatomical correlates of the estimation of occurrence frequency have received little attention. This study investigates the possible role of the frontal lobe in estimating word occurrence frequency. A sample of 27 patients with frontal lesions were matched with normal controls by sex, age and years of education. Significant differences between patients and controls were found for frequency estimation, but not for item recognition. Studying accuracy of estimation as a function of actual frequency, the frontal group performed worse, especially at high frequencies of occurrence. As far as lesion lateralization is concerned, the right frontal subgroup performed worse than the control group in the estimation of frequency. Our results suggest that the prefrontal cortex plays a role in estimating word occurrence and that there is a dissociation between frequency memory and recognition memory, pointing to the involvement of two different cerebral systems.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Information needs of the traumatic brain injury patient's family members regarding the consequences of the injury and associated perception of physical, cognitive, emotional and quality of life changes.

We studied physical, cognitive, emotional and quality-of-life changes noted by relatives in a sample of 65 severely traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients several years after injury. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the families perception of these changes and their need for information concerning the consequences of TBI. Our results indicated that the perceived changes in behavioural and affective symptoms and in the patient's quality of life were most closely associated with the need expressed by family members for information concerning, TBI. We also found that family relationships were especially affected by problems in the behavioral and affective domain, and the decrease in patient quality of life, as reported by relatives. These findings underline the importance of providing the relatives of TBI patients with information about the consequences of the injury with particular emphasis on behavioural and emotional disturbances, in order that they might cope better with these problems.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Right hemisphere dysfunction in subjects with attention-deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity.

The attention-deficit disorder, with and without hyperactivity, is associated with defective attention, response inhibition and, in attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity, with motor restlessness. In adults, inattention, defective response inhibition, and impersistence are more commonly seen in right hemisphere lesions. In the present study, we investigate possible right hemisphere dysfunctions in attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity and attention-deficit disorder without hyperactivity. The right hemisphere performance of 60 teenagers, 16 having attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity, 9 having attention-deficit disorder without hyperactivity, and 35 controls, selected clinically (DSM-III) and experimentally (through Continuous Performance Test and Paced Auditory Addition Task), with normal IQ was assessed using a wide-ranging battery of visuospatial, visuoperceptive, and visuoconstructive functions (Benton's Line Orientation, Benton's Visual Retention, Raven's Progressive Matrices, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale [WAIS] Block-Design, Rey's Complex Figure). Teenagers with attention-deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity performed significantly worse than controls. Greater differences were found between subjects with attention-deficit disorder without hyperactivity and control than between subjects with attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity and control subjects. Our results seem to be consistent with right-hemisphere dysfunction, especially in subjects with attention-deficit disorder without hyperactivity. Additionally, WAIS Block-Design and Benton's Line Orientation are the visuospatial tests with the highest discriminant power to differentiate between controls, subjects with attention-deficit disorder without hyperactivity, and subjects with attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

[Attention: a complex cerebral function].

INTRODUCTION: Attention is a brain neurocognitive state of preparing what precedes perception and action, and is a result of cortical and subcortical networks. Attention selectively focuses our consciousness while filtering the constant flow of sensory information, selects competent parallel processing among stimuli and activates brain zones for ordering appropriate responses. DEVELOPMENT: From a neurofunctional point of view this paper reviews and describes attention as a brain function regulated by three interrelated systems: Alertness or arousal providing tonic attention, dependent on the mesencephalic reticular activating system and its connections: posterior attention or attention of perceptive selectivity that depends on zones of the right posterior parietal cortex and its connections; and, anterior attention or supervisory attention that regulates deliberate attention, and supported by zones of the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal cortex and the connections of the zones.

Attention↗