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[Physiopathological and neuropathological study of a cerebral decortication syndrome].

Detailed observation of a case of laminar necrosis of almost the whole of the cerebral cortex has led to several deductions concerning the physiology of the cortex in man. It suggests that the cortex has a limited influence on sleep, interfering particularly in the electro-encephalographic translation of slow sleep and, curiously, in the organisation of sleep, paradoxical sleep is hardly affected at all. It confirms the importance of the human cortex in the acquisition of elementary skills and describes a new oculomotor pattern in a decorticate man.

Adult

Cerebral decortication reverses the effect of amphetamine on striatal D2 dopamine binding site density.

Unilateral ablation of the cerebral cortex produces a decrease of approximately 38% in striatal D2 dopamine binding site density. Chronic d-amphetamine treatment also produces a decrease of about 22% in D2 binding site density. Paradoxically, when rats were hemidecorticated and treated chronically with d-amphetamine, the density of striatal D2 dopamine binding sites on the decorticated side was increased (by about 50%) rather than decreased. Evidently d-amphetamine-induced down-regulation of D2 dopamine binding sites depends on an intact corticostriatal pathway.

Animals

Effect of cerebral hemisphere decortication on the cytotoxic activity of natural killer and natural cytotoxic lymphocytes in the mouse.

A comparison was made of the effects of left and right cerebral decortication on cytotoxic activity of natural killer and natural cytotoxic lymphocytes in the mouse. Natural killer cytotoxic activity was significantly reduced after right decortication, whereas left decortication led to a less pronounced, though still significant fall. The cytotoxic activity of natural cytotoxic cells, on the other hand, was significantly increased, particularly 15 days after left decortication. These findings mirror the results of previously published personal findings following electrothermocoagulation of the hypothalamus. The suggestion is made that the cortex and the hypothalamus form an integrated system for the control of certain aspects of natural immunity.

Analysis of Variance

The response of striatal neuropeptide Y and cholinergic neurons to excitatory amino acid agonists.

The effect of excitatory amino acid antagonists on antagonist on neuropeptide Y (NPY) and cholinergic neurons in the striatum of the rat was studied by means of NPY immunocytochemistry, DFP histochemistry for acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and biochemical determinations of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT). Intrastriatal infusion of drugs revealed that striatal neurons containing NPY are more sensitive than cholinergic neurons to the neurotoxic actions of kainic acid (KA), quinolinic acid (QA) and L-glutamic acid (GA); all 3 compounds produced a marked loss of NPY neurons, but only a moderate decrease in the number of AChE neurons or ChAT activity. Co-injection experiments showed that the neurotoxicity of QA and GA, but not that of KA, can be antagonized by the specific N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist 3-((+/-)-2-(carboxypiperazine-4-yl))-propyl-1-phosphonic acid (CPP). Destruction of the glutamatergic corticostriatal projection by cerebral decortication protected striatal NPY and cholinergic neurons against KA neurotoxicity. These results indicate that striatal NPY and cholinergic neurons receive prominent cortical amino acid afferents, and that the neurotoxic effect of QA and GA on these neurons is mediated through NMDA receptors.

Acetylcholinesterase

A behavioral quantal theory of brain function: an alternative to Lashley's continuity theory of mass action.

A behavioral quantal theory of brain function is formulated on the basis of a newly discovered step-wise relationship invariably present among the findings of three experiments by Tsai, et al. on the effects of (1) cerebral decortication, (2) cranial x-radiation, as well as (3) insulin, metrazol, and electroconvulsive shocks upon white rats' adaptive behavior during their learning of successive habit reversals and one-trial reversal problems. Confirmatory results from earlier investigators who studied effects of various current strengths of ECS upon learning and retention of various maze habits are also cited in support of the behavioral quantal theory of brain function which is proposed here as a close-up, more refined alternative to Lashley's continuity theory of mass action.

Animals

[Contribution to anatomical and clinical studies of avoidance phenomena (author's transl)].

The authors report 5 cases of avoiding phenomenon of the hand from parietal lesions. Four of these patients were operated for intractable epilepsy, from a parietal cortectomy that implicated a certain amount of white matter. The avoiding phenomena observed are analyzed as elementary motor perturbations rather than a disturbance of motor comportment. The authors distinguish two types of avoiding phenomena: 1--Avoiding phenomenon of dystonic type occurs during any motor activity and persists during all its development. It is probably related to the removal of the cortex of the post-central gyrus and of the anterior part of the superior parietal lobule; 2--The initial avoiding phenomenon is brief and occurs only at the beginning of the movements which implicate solely the upper limb; it seems related to the removal of the internal part of the superior parietal lobule that corresponds approximately to areas 5 and 7 from Brodmann. Some hypotheses are discussed concerning the possible physio-pathological mechanisms of these disturbances.

Adolescent

[Spectrofluorometric determination of dopamine in small areas of rat brain (author's transl)].

A method for the extraction and quantification of Dopamine from small areas of rat brain has been developed. The extraction with solvents eliminates the column cromatography separations and allows the simultaneous processing of a good number of samples. Sample retrieval is quite high (70%) and very reproducible. The evaluation was made from areas with a minimal weight of 0.225 g. The quantification of Dopamine was obtained using spectrofluorometric techniques, reading the fluorescence of the trihydroxy indol derivate. The linear relation between the instrument readings and the concentration of Dopamine is from 0 to 0.5 microng/ml. The maximal concentration of Dopamine was found in the decorticated cerebral hemispheres (1.485 microng/g), the next highest values in the diencephalon (1.046 microng/), and the minimal concentration in the cerebellum (0.283 microng/g). The concentration of the whole brain was 0.701 microng/g.

Animals

Performance of manual copying tasks after focal cortical lesions.

Patients with unilateral frontal or temporal excisions and normal control subjects were required (1) to copy single, difficult positions of the arm, fingers, or both, and (2) to copy the experimenter as three hand positions were presented one after the other at an increasing rate. All patient groups were impaired relative to the control group on both tasks, but on the second task patients with frontal lesions were also impaired relative to those with temporal lesions. Results suggested a role of the left-and right-frontal lobes in rapid execution of multiple manual responses.

Adolescent

Language and memory functions after long recovery periods in left-hemispherectomized subjects.

Two subjects who had infantile brain damage and left hemispherectomies at the ages of 17 and 18 yr are assessed after 28 and 16 yr recovery periods. Deficits on the comprehension of passive-negative sentences disappeared when the subjects read rather than heard the sentences, and performances were normal on the Token and Reporter's Tests, and tests of verbal memory. These results suggest that if damage to the left hemisphere occurs early in life and there is a long recovery period, the right hemisphere can mediate verbal memory and the more subtle aspects of language. This provides support for the hypothesis that the two hemispheres are equipotential for language and verbal memory.

Adult

Making reference: the cohesive use of pronouns in the narrative discourse of hemidecorticate adolescents.

The cohesive use of referential language in narrative production reveals communicative goals as well as specific aspects of language use. A formalism for analyzing pronominal cohesion was developed and applied to the narrative discourse of three hemidecorticate adolescents. The results revealed hemisphere-dependent differences in overall narrative skill as well as distinct individual discourse strategies. Neither left hemidecorticate planned narration in extended discourse units: One demonstrated a linear and highly explicit discourse style with redundant over-statement of referent nouns and the other produced narratives cluttered with pronouns of both correct and ambiguous reference, relying on nonpersonal pronouns at considerable cost to narrative specificity. The right hemidecorticate produced narratives that were more economical in form and richer in content: He was the only subject able to maintain simultaneous story lines with multiple pronouns and referential relationships cohesively embedded. All subjects expressed at least some story content, but only the right hemidecorticate narratives conveyed suggestion and implication as well as explicit statement.

Adolescent

Classification and recall of pictures after unilateral frontal or temporal lobectomy.

Classification and recall of pictures of familiar objects were studied in 21 normal control subjects and 75 patients with unilateral cerebral excisions. The patients with frontal-lobe excisions were impaired at categorizing the pictures and at recalling the objects depicted. Left and right temporal-lobe groups performed the sorting task normally, but the left temporal-lobe groups were impaired at recalling picture names. The right temporal-lobe groups were unimpaired. A negative correlation between the number of items uncategorized and the number recalled was found in the right frontal-lobe group but not in the left, who were impaired also at recalling the items that they had classified correctly. It is concluded that impaired categorization played a major role in determining the recall deficits in the right frontal-lobe group but not in the left, whose impaired recall may also be due to defective retrieval. The poor recall of the left temporal-lobe groups is thought instead to depend on abnormally rapid forgetting.

Adolescent

The role of early left-brain injury in determining lateralization of cerebral speech functions.

Preparatory to craniotomy for the relief of medically refractory focal epilepsy, the lateralization of cerebral speech functions was determined by the Wada intracarotid Amytal test in 134 patients with clinical and radiologic evidence of an early left-hemisphere lesion. Their results were compared with those for 262 patients (140 right-handed, 122 left-handed), who were tested in a similar way. One-third of the patients with early lesions were still right-handed, and 81% of these right-handers were left-hemisphere dominant for speech. In the non-right-handers, speech was represented in the left cerebral hemisphere in nearly a third of the group, in the right hemisphere in half the group, and bilaterally in the remainder. Bilateral speech representation was demonstrated in 15% of the non-right-handers without early left-brain injury and in 19% of those with evidence of such early injury, whereas it was extremely rare in the right-handed groups. In addition, nearly half the patients with bilateral speech representation exhibited a complete or partial dissociation between errors of naming and errors in the repetition of verbal sequences after Amytal injection into left or right hemispheres. This points to the possibility of a functionally asymmetric participation of the two hemispheres in the language processes of some normal left-handers. The results of the Amytal speech tests in this series of patients point to locus of lesion as one of the critical determinants in the lateralization of cerebral speech processes after early left-brain injury. It is argued that in such cases the continuing dominance of the left hemisphere for speech in largely contingent upon the integrity of the frontal and parietal speech zones.

Adolescent

Pavlov's position on the effects of decortication on conditional reflexes.

This paper examined D. Joravsky's (1989) hypothesis that I.P. Pavlov dogmatically refused to acknowledge that classical conditioning can be mediated by subcortical regions of the large cerebral hemispheres. Decortication literature from 1901 to 1936 was reviewed. The early studies available to Pavlov, who died in 1936, showed that decortication does not allow the establishment of new or retaining of old conditional reflexes (CRs). G.P. Zelenyĭ's later experiments(1930) suggested that the establishment of primitive CRs in decorticated dogs was possible. Pavlov never denied this possibility but cautioned that Zelenyĭ's experiments could have been methodologically flawed. Although Joravsky's original hypothesis on Pavlov's position on the relation between decortication and the establishment of CRs is by and large accepted, it must be stressed that Pavlov's theory of higher nervous activity was primarily concerned with the function of the brain in the higher organism's struggle for existence. Within this context the cortical, rather than subcortical, processes play the decisive role in the organism's adaptation to the changing external environment.

Animals