Biomedical subjects

L Trojano

Publications and source records attributed to L Trojano.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1992

Impaired drawing from memory in a visual agnosic patient.

A case is reported of an associative visual agnosic patient who could not draw from memory objects he could recognize, even though he could copy drawings flawlessly. His ability to generate mental visual images was found to be spared, as was his ability to operate upon mental images. These data suggest that the patient could generate mental images but could not draw from memory because he did not have access to stored knowledge about pictorial attributes of objects. A similar functional impairment can be found in some other visual agnosic patients and in patients affected by optic aphasia. The present case allows a discussion of relationships among drawing from memory, imagery, and copying procedures.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Short-term memory and verbal learning with auditory phonological coding defect: a neuropsychological case study.

A patient is described with a rarely reported linguistic syndrome: he could repeat words but not nonwords. The patient produced semantic paraphasias in repetition and could read both words and nonwords flawlessly. His basic difficulties were localized in auditory phonological coding, identifying a clinical picture called "phonemic deafness." Short-term memory and verbal learning results suggested that a standard, selective short-term memory defect can be induced by auditory phonological coding deficits as well as by "pure" short-term memory capacity limitation and other phonological deficits. Findings also provided evidence that lexical-semantic code can allow normal verbal learning.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Mixed transcortical aphasia: clinical features and neuroanatomical correlates. A possible role of the right hemisphere.

This paper reports the clinical features of 2 patients affected by mixed transcortical aphasia. Both of them had extensive damage of the left hemisphere. Cerebral blood flow measurement showed a marked decrease in left-hemisphere flow. In particular, speech areas were found to be morphologically and functionally damaged. The present findings, together with a critical review of the literature, served as a starting point for a discussion of linguistic features, diagnostic criteria and classical neuroanatomical interpretation of mixed transcortical aphasia. The possible contribution of the right hemisphere in determining this aphasic syndrome is suggested.

Aged↗

PubMed1989

On the different roles of the cerebral hemispheres in mental imagery: the "o'Clock Test" in two clinical cases.

This paper develops the hypothesis of different roles of the two hemispheres in imaginal processes. A test designated the "o'Clock Test" is proposed, which contains closely confrontable perceptual and imaginal tasks. It enables examination of the abilities both to generate mental images and to explore them in their right and left halves (R + L Condition). This test was used to examine two patients, one severely affected by hemi-inattention resulting from a right posterior lesion, and the other with a selective deficit of imagery due to a left occipital lesion. The former demonstrated left neglect in both perceptive and imaginal capacities, while the latter was able to perform correctly only the perceptive tasks. These results suggest that the right hemisphere has functions of organization and spatial exploration at both perceptive and imaginal levels, and that the left hemisphere's role is to generate mental images.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

Mixed transcortical aphasia. On relative sparing of phonological short-term store in a case.

A case of Mixed Transcortical Aphasia is reported. The patient showed completely impaired verbal comprehension and speech production, with preservation of automatic speaking and singing; repetition was relatively spared. A detailed study of word and nonword repetition is reported, in order to demonstrate that the patient's residual repetition ability is based on relative sparing of short-term phonological store.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

Selective "semantic amnesia" after closed-head injury. A case report.

An 18-year-old girl with a left parietal lesion caused by a closed-head injury exhibited a peculiar memory impairment. The patient showed selective "semantic amnesia" (severe loss of the stock of notions acquired prior to the disease), while autobiographic memory and spatial learning ability were preserved. The semantic/episodic distinction is discussed in the light of the patient's performance on neuropsychological tasks.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1988

Immediate memory spans in dementia.

Spatial span (Corsi's block-tapping test) and verbal spans for digits (Wechsler Digits Forward Test) and for words were measured in 30 normal subjects and in 51 demented patients, divided into two groups (mildly demented and severely demented) according to selective clinical and neuropsychological criteria. Statistical analysis showed significant differences among the three groups for spatial span. By contrast, controls' and mildly demented patients' performances on both verbal spans were not significantly different. These findings are discussed in the light of theory about working memory.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Memory encoding processes in mild and severe dementia. Preliminary data.

Memory coding processes can be divided according to their attentional requirement into "automatic" and "effortful". The aim of current research was to explore both automatic and effortful processes in early and late stages of Alzheimer type dementia. Patients were classified on the basis of restrictive clinical and neuropsychological criteria, in order to pinpoint possible specific impairments in the two patients' subgroups. The present paper reports preliminary data about 15 mildly and 15 severely demented patients. Statistical analysis showed that both the automatic and the effortful coding processes are impaired at the late but also at the early stages of dementia.

Alzheimer Disease↗