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Biomedical subjects

C Stangalino

Publications and source records attributed to C Stangalino.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Object recognition and object orientation in Alzheimer's disease.

There are a wide variety of neuropsychological deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD), among which are disorders of visual perception and spatial cognition. The present study investigated the ability of 20 mildly to moderately deteriorated patients with AD (and 174 age- and education-matched controls) on tasks that required them to visually identify, provide the canonical orientation of, and mentally rotate common objects. Some 85% of the AD patients performed poorly on all tasks. The authors were able to identify a small number of individual patients whose pattern of performance represented double dissociations between recognizing objects and knowing their canonical orientation. These findings are interpreted in the context of previous findings, especially as to whether information relating to an object's orientation and identity is independently coded.

Adult↗

Color-to-figure matching in Alzheimer's disease.

Thirty-three patients with probable Alzheimer's disease were examined on a standardized Color-to-Figure Matching Test (CFMT) for which patients select appropriate colors from a set of colored pencils to match outline pictures of common objects. Seven patients performing below the CFMT cut-off score were further assessed using other tests investigating the naming of these outline pictures of common objects as well as the naming and sorting of colors: One patient performed badly in all tests; three other patients could not be considered true cases of poor object-color retrieval because of their inability to name the objects; and in the remaining three patients with unimpaired object naming (although two of them had word-finding difficulties), their impaired object-color retrieval was found to dissociate from both color sorting and color naming. These findings support the notion of a separation of pure color processing from object-color knowledge. Thus for patients with Alzheimer's disease, there is evidence in a few instances for a dissociation between object-color retrieval and both color sorting and color naming.

Journal Article↗

Generating visual mental images: deficit after brain damage.

This is the first non-retrospective neuropsychological group study using a componential task analysis for the study of imagery. Seventy unilaterally brain damaged patients were tested on a series of tasks with the intent of isolating genuine deficits of the image generation process. The main finding is that the image generation seems to be more frequently disturbed after a left posterior damage. Suggestions are provided for further investigations.

Adult↗

The transcallosal approach for lesions affecting the lateral and third ventricles. Surgical considerations and results in a series of 42 cases.

The study was carried out on a series of 42 patients who underwent surgery through a midline approach. Lesions were in the anterior part of the third ventricle in 32 cases, in the frontal horns in 6, in the trigone in 3, and in both lateral and third ventricles in 1 case. The third ventricle was approached through Monro's foramen in 22 cases and through an interfornicial route in 9 cases. Surgical mortality occurred in 2 cases (5%). Permanent morbidity occurred in another 2 cases (5%): it consisted of slight intellectual deterioration in one case and slight fixed pyramidal signs in the other. Transient mutism was the most frequently observed postoperative complication. Thirty-one patients were reviewed and submitted to neuropsychological tests in the late postoperative period to investigate the presence of intellectual deterioration or disturbances in the interhemispheric transfer of motor, somataesthetic and visual information. All patients showed only the presence of short-term memory disturbance. Furthermore, 12 patients tested before surgery also showed the presence of short-term memory deficits in the preoperative period. We conclude that a midline approach is the most direct and safe route to the third ventricle as well as to the frontal horns and trigone.

Adolescent↗