0000000000076424
AUTHOR
Uolevi Tolonen
Atypical perceptual narrowing in prematurely born infants is associated with compromised language acquisition at 2 years of age
Abstract Background Early auditory experiences are a prerequisite for speech and language acquisition. In healthy children, phoneme discrimination abilities improve for native and degrade for unfamiliar, socially irrelevant phoneme contrasts between 6 and 12 months of age as the brain tunes itself to, and specializes in the native spoken language. This process is known as perceptual narrowing, and has been found to predict normal native language acquisition. Prematurely born infants are known to be at an elevated risk for later language problems, but it remains unclear whether these problems relate to early perceptual narrowing. To address this question, we investigated early neurophysiolog…
Phosphomannosyl receptors of lysosomal enzymes of skeletal muscle in neuromuscular diseases.
The phosphomannosyl receptor system is responsible for both the receptor-mediated endocytosis and the intracellular transport of lysosomal enzymes. In the present study this receptor system was examined in affected muscles of patients with various neuromuscular diseases. The total activity of beta-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase, a marker enzyme of lysosomal hydrolases, was significantly elevated in the patients with myopathies (polymyositis and muscular dystrophies) but only slightly increased in those with neurogenic muscle atrophies (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, polyneuropathy or other neurogenic muscle disease). The increase was most prominent in the group of polymyositis. The content of pho…
Activities of some antioxidative and hexose monophosphate shunt enzymes of skeletal muscle in neuromuscular diseases.
The activities of some antioxidative and hexose monophosphate shunt enzymes, as well as of 2 hydrolases were studied in skeletal muscle biopsy specimens taken from 39 patients with neuromuscular diseases and from 15 controls. The activity of Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase was higher in patients with congenital myotonia, whereas in the other diagnostic groups this enzyme activity was the same as in the controls. The Se-independent and total glutathione peroxidase activity of patients in the various diagnostic groups did not differ from the controls. Moreover, no difference were observed in catalase activity between the patient groups and the controls. The activities of the rate limiting…