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Biomedical subjects

M Cabaret

Publications and source records attributed to M Cabaret.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Pathologic laughing and intractable hiccups can occur early in multiple sclerosis.

Pathologic laughing occurs in approximately 10% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), especially when patients have entered the chronic stage. We describe four patients with MS who, at an early stage, developed pathologic laughing associated, in two cases, with intractable hiccups. In two patients, MRI showed an enhanced lesion in the medulla oblongata and the mesencephalon, two regions suspected of being involved in pathologic laughing and intractable hiccups.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

One-year cyclophosphamide treatment combined with methylprednisolone improves cognitive dysfunction in progressive forms of multiple sclerosis.

We conducted an evaluation of changes in cognition in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) patients receiving monthly intravenously pulse of cyclophosphamide (700 mg/m2) with methylprednisolone (1g). Twenty-eight consecutive progressive MS patients (10 primary progressive, 18 secondary progressive MS) were evaluated before and after six and 12 months of treatment. The WAIS-R score, memory and executive functions were evaluated. Under treatment we found a significant improvement in global cognitive efficiency, encoding abilities, planning abilities and inhibition after six and 12 months. However, mechanisms of action of the positive effect of these anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive treatments on cognition remain unclear.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

[BCcogSEP: a French test battery evaluating cognitive functions in multiple sclerosis].

In French language, there is no standardized procedure to assess cognitive function in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Such an assessment is however very useful to determine the consequences of the disease on cognitive function, to evaluate the disease progression and the consequences of usual treatments on cognition. This study aimed to develop and validate a French language battery based on "the Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological tests for Multiple Sclerosis" (BRB-N) often used in other countries. In an initial phase, the battery was composed of the French version of the 5 BRB-N tests to which were added 4 tests assessing immediate and working memory as well as executive function. 52 healthy control subjects (20-50 years) participated in the study. A principal component analysis (PCA) of their data examined the contribution of each test into the battery. 93 other healthy subjects participated in a second phase where analyses of variance were carried out to investigate the effect of the main demographical variables. Finally, the performance of two patient groups (20 with a EDSS score 3) was compared to the healthy controls in order to investigate the ability of our battery to detect cognitive impairment in MS patients. The PCA showed that each test, except one, had a specific contribution to the battery. The final battery (BCcogSEP) was thus comprised of 8 tests. MANOVA and ANOVA showed significant effects of age, sex and educational level on performance. In consequence, a procedure allowing to take into account these factors was developed. The battery was able to detect cognitive impairment in MS patients, even when the disease is not severe. In this case, deficits were observed in tests assessing executive function, information processing speed, immediate and working memory. This short battery with reliable psychometric qualities allows the interpretation of a MS patient's performance considering his/her demographical characteristics and is able to detect cognitive abnormalities even in case of mild physical handicap.

Cognition↗
PubMed2000

[Neuropsychological correlates of cerebral blood flow anomalies and MRI lesions after rupture of anterior communicating artery aneurysms].

The aim of this study was to investigate relations between neuropsychological disorders resulting from rupture of aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery, regional cerebral blood flow anomalies and brain lesions revealed on MRI. Blood flow was analyzed in 22 consecutive patients at least 3 weeks after surgery using single photon emission computed tomography. Flow values were calculated in 10 regions of interest on each side of the brain. Attention, motor control, executive functions, short-term and long-term learning (verbal, visuo-spatial), categorical evocation, general intellectual performances were investigated. Flow drop was observed over frontal areas, which predominated on the right side. The correlation analyses showed that

Aged↗
PubMed1999

Control functions of the frontal lobes. Modularity of the central-supervisory system?

Lesions of the prefrontal cortex result in a wide variety of neuropsychological disorders. Despite recent advances, the executive processes and their functional architecture remain poorly specified. This study assessed control processes operating in novel, conflicting and combined tasks in patients with lesion of the prefrontal or posterior cortices. Experiments used two-choice reaction time tests with similar perceptuo-motor and decision processes. It mainly showed (1) impaired short term memory in posterior patients, and (2) impairment of response inhibition and tasks combination in some frontal patients. Selective deficits with double dissociations were evidenced on novel, conflicting and combined tasks. This study provides additional evidence for the prominent role of the frontal lobes in control processes. The demonstration of selective deficits of specific control processes suggests that executive functions depend on multiple separable control processes, and that their operations can be specified in cognitive terms.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

PET study and neuropsychological assessment of a long-lasting post-encephalitic parkinsonism.

A 76-year old woman was affected by lethargic encephalitis in 1918, at the age of 3 months. Long-term clinical follow-up with late neuropsychological evaluation revealed post-encephalitic parkinsonism, which worsened very slowly and was improved by levodopa. Obsessive and compulsive disorders (OCD) were associated to nosophobia. Neuropsychological evaluation showed mild visuocontructional memory deficit, which was isolated. 18 Fluoro-Dopa PET demonstrated a severe bilateral and symmetrical reduction in fluoro-dopa uptake, which was more marked in the putamen than in the caudate. Thus, the pattern of dopaminergic denervation was similar to the one observed in idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

[Residual deficit of verbal recall after a left internal cerebral vein infarct].

A case of unilateral infarct in the territory of the left internal cerebral vein, severely disturbing cognitive processes, and more especially recall in verbal memory, is reported. This 22-year-old patient survived a left thalamic and striato-capsular infarct related to a straight sinus and left internal cerebral vein thrombosis. Motor and functional recovery was fair, despite late dystonia. At the secondary phase post-stroke, cognitive disorders were severe, including increased short-term forgetting and episodic (anterograde and retrograde) and semantic amnesia. One year later, a residual deficit of verbal recall was observed, which participated in the anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Recognition was well preserved. This case showed that: (1) internal cerebral vein thrombosis can have severe consequences on cognition and memory, and that late prognosis is not as fair as has been previously reported in selected patients, and (2) left diencephalic structures are specifically associated with recollection of verbal information from long-term memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

[Learning disorders after ruptured aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery].

The aim of this study was to reevaluate short term and long term memory disorders after anterior communicating artery rupture, then to more specifically assess the importance and the role of forgetting, proactive and retroactive interferences, impaired memory for temporal order, attention disorders and dysexecutive syndrome, and finally MRI-defined brain lesions. Twenty one patients presenting with selective anterior brain injury, were assessed at the secondary and late post stroke phases. The short term memory analysis showed the digit span was reduced at the secondary stage, but that mean performances were preserved in the Peterson and Sternberg paradigms. Verbal and visuospatial learning in long term memory showed a severe deficit in free recall, chiefly serial, and associative recall. Recognition was mildly impaired at the secondary phase, and later normalized. A definite and lasting increase of proactive and retroactive interferences and an impairment in discriminating the temporal order of word presentations were observed. Amnesic impairment was relatively well correlated with forgetting, severity of interferences and temporal order amnesia, so as with disorders of attention and executive functions (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). However, intrusions in free recall and false recognitions were not clearly related with the dysexecutive syndrome. The severity of amnesia was associated with lesions of the left anterior cingulate cortex, and of the corpus callosum. These results suggest that these patients mainly had a deficit in information retrieval, mostly compromising long term memory, but also to a lesser degree short term memory. Forgetting, interferences and the dysexecutive syndrome probably play an important role in the decline of mnemonic performance, but do not clearly explain intrusions in recall and errors in recognition.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

[Retrograde memory after rupture of aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery].

The aim of this study was to investigate deficits of retrograde memory, semantic, autobiographical, and for famous events, associated with prefrontal, cingulate and subcortical lesions resulting from anterior communicating artery rupture. Analyses were performed during the secondary phase post-stroke in 16 patients, and performances were compared to those of an equivalent number of matched control subjects. Semantic investigations revealed a significant deficit in each task using evocation, more especially categorical and literal evocations, and the verbal subtests of the WAIS-R: vocabulary, information, comprehension, and similarities. Furthermore, the capacity to categories was preserved. The Crovitz paradigm, which evaluated the autobiographical memory showed a severe deficit in the evocation of events associated with a precise context in place and moreover in time, with a clear tendency to produce semantic responses, but without significant increase in confabulations. The questionnaire on famous events (1936-1985) did not document deficit in recognition and recall. Furthermore, the patients disorder was more severe in learning new information. Memory disorders were best explained by the severity of lesions in the medio-basal frontal and cingulate cortices, but also by the subcortical injury. Significant correlations were observed between the retrograde memory performance and "frontal" tasks, more especially the WCST; however, similar relations were also documented between learning new information and "frontal" performance. These data suggest that retrograde amnesia results from a selective impairment in accessing old memory representations, and that cognitive processes more specifically altered have tight relations with the capacity to organize the search and to shift.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Cognitive and psychiatric impairment in herpes simplex virus encephalitis suggest involvement of the amygdalo-frontal pathways.

The long-term neuropsychological and psychiatric sequelae of herpes simplex virus encephalitis (HSVE) and their relationship to the volume of temporal lesions and to amygdala and hippocampus damage remain undefined. We have conducted a prospective study of long-term sequelae in 11 patients with clinically presumed HSVE and detection of HSV DNA in the cerebrospinal fluid by polymerase chain reaction. Six months after encephalitis, patients underwent neuropsychological and language assessment. At the same stage, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) evaluated the occurrence of hypoperfusion with an index of asymmetry. MRI was used for the measurement of amygdala, hippocampus and cerebral lesions by two blind neurologists. The volume of the amygdala and hippocampus was compared with those of five controls, matched for age and level of education. Long-term memory disorders were seen in 6 patients, associated with the larger lesions and damage of at least two structures. Long-term behavioural changes with emotionalism, irritability, anxiety or depression were prominent in 7. Left prefrontal hypoperfusion appeared in 8 patients, associated with psychiatric disorders in 7 and left amygdala damage in 6. The reduction of amygdala and hippocampus volume was correlated with the overall volume of lesions. Different patterns of mesial temporal lobe damage occurred, involving either amygdala alone, or amygdala and hippocampus, but never hippocampus alone. MRI volumetric measurements in HSVE could be a good indicator of long-term prognosis. Persistant behavioural changes could be related to an amygdala and frontal dysfunction.

Acyclovir↗
PubMed1996

[Analysis and course of cognitive deficits after rupture of aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery].

The aim of this study is to investigate general intellectual and memory performances at the secondary (3 weeks to 4.5 months) and late (10 to 16 months) stages following rupture of anterior communicating artery aneurysms (AACA). Twenty one patients presenting with selective lesion within frontal, or cingulate, callosal, caudate, basal forebrain areas were evaluated. At the secondary stage, the analysis of the general intellectual capacities revealed a drop of performance, prominent on performance IQ, which was more severe than the learning deficit. Specific cognitive evaluations revealed increase of the execution time, but performance was relatively preserved: in the Stroop test, focused attention disorder was moderate: the modified Wisconsin Card Sorting test was correctly performed in most cases; significant deficits of verbal short-term memory, long-term verbal and visuo-spatial learning, and access to semantic memory were observed. At the late stage, general intellectual performance improved, but did not reached the estimated prelesional level in most cases; specific cognitive disorders had most often disappeared. Most performances were best explained by the severity of lesions in the left cingulate cortex and corpus callosum area. These results show that the cognitive profile of AACA patients is different from classical descriptions of the "amnesic syndrome", and is also different at the secondary and late stages; this evolution has to be taken into account in studies describing cognitive deficits of such patients, or comparing them with others presenting with "annesic syndrome".

Adult↗
PubMed1995

[Deficit of verbal recall caused by left dorso-lateral thalamic infarction].

A case of amnesia with preferential disorder of verbal recall, associated to a limited infarct of the left superior, external and anterior thalamus, is reported. This lesion involved the anterior and middle dorso-lateral nuclei and the centrolateral nucleus, sparing most of the structures classically incriminated in diencephalic amnesia. At the initial stage, the patient presented discrete language impairment and severe deficit of semantic processing, which later recovered. At the late stage, the anterograde and retrograde amnesia principally concerned the recall of verbal information used in daily life, verbal learning using short-term and long-term recall, questionnaires evaluating retrograde memory and requiring the evocation of proper names. Verbal priming was also affected. Verbal recognition was preserved. Evocation of the most recent events of the personal life was also impaired. Confrontation of this case with others previously reported suggests that various thalamic amnesias may be described, associated to different cognitive deficits, in relation with the preferential situation of lesions.

Amnesia↗
PubMed1994

Vigilance and effects of fatigability, practice and motivation on simple reaction time tests in patients with lesion of the frontal lobe.

Despite the wide use of RT tests in brain-damaged patients assessment, effects of the level of vigilance, fatigability, practice and motivation on RT have been poorly investigated. We assessed vigilance and effects of fatigability, practice and motivation on brain-damaged patients suffering from lesion of the prefrontal cortex prominent in basofrontal areas and controls using simple RT tests. Our study showed fatigability and practice effects which did not affect RT differences between groups, whereas motivation effect was not significant. Finally, patients did not suffer from a deficit of vigilance. These results suggest that the attentional disorders demonstrated in the same patient group were related neither to a higher sensitivity to fatigability nor to an insufficient practice.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Visual hallucinations with written words in a case of left parietotemporal lesion.

A 15 year old ambidextrous patient presented with left temporoparietal lesions after head trauma. Seizures associated with visual hallucinations of written words arose six months later. Electroencephalography showed spike and wave complexes with phase opposition over the left parietal area. On MRI a post-traumatic porencephalic lesion was seen in area 7 and the superior part of area 39 of Brodmann; on T2 sequences, it was surrounded by a hyperecho predominating in the inferior part of the parietal lobe and extending in the posteroexternal temporal cortex. This first description of hallucinations of written words raises the possibility of the presence, in the temporoparietal cortex, of specific representations ("lexicon") of corresponding information.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Neuropsychological changes related to unilateral lenticulostriate infarcts.

According to previous studies, focal capsulostriatal lesions may produce aphasia, hemineglect, gestural apraxia, frontal lobe dysfunction, and memory impairment. A few reports of capsulostriate infarcts secondary to involvement of lenticulostriate arteries have confirmed that aphasia and hemineglect may occur whereas gestural apraxia, anosognosia and frontal-lobe symptoms are rare. Most studies used CT scan assessment and did not exclude possible associated lesions. Neuropsychological changes in 11 patients with lenticulostriate infarcts diagnosed by CT scan were prospectively investigated. MRI in five of the 11 patients showed an associated cortical lesion not seen on CT scan. Patients with pure lenticulostriate infarcts on MRI may exhibit aphasia of mild severity whereas Broca's aphasia, hemineglect, gestural apraxia, and anosognosia were only seen in the subgroup with associated cortical lesions. Aphasia in patients with pure lenticulostriate infarcts was characterised by prominent expressive and lexicosemantic task impairments. The results strongly suggest that cortical involvement is critical to the extent and severity of neuropsychological changes in patients with lenticulostriate infarcts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

SPECT data in a case of secondary Capgras delusion.

Capgras' delusion (CD) may be secondary to a neurologic lesion, particularly in the right frontal or occipital regions. A 40-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis underwent SPECT during and after an episode of CD. Analysis during delusion showed an uptake defect in the right parietal cortex with an 11% index of asymmetry (normal: < or = 4%). Post-delusion SPECT showed decreased bifrontal and biparietal cortical uptake indices but a normal index of asymmetry. Functional brain imaging may provide clues to the psychopathology of CD.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

[Amnesic syndrome caused by limited infarction in the right anterior thalamus].

A case of global and persistent amnesia due to a right polar and anterior thalamic infarction is reported. There was a moderate impairment of attention and categorization ability. The amnesia was primarily anterograde, with partial disturbance of short-term memory and severe deficit of long-term memory for verbal and visuo-spatial materials. A severe increase of pro-active interference was present. Retrograde memory was mildly affected. Two years later, a second infarction in the right thalamo-sub-thalamic territory occurred, increasing the deficits of attention, short-term memory and recall.

Adult↗