Search results for " Broca"
showing 10 items of 15 documents
Involvement of the cholinergic basal forebrain nuclei in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2)
2013
Aims: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) belongs to the CAG repeat or polyglutamine diseases. Along with a large variety of motor, behavioural and neuropsychological symptoms the clinical picture of patients suffering from this autosomal dominantly inherited ataxia may also include deficits of attention, impairments of memory, as well as frontal-executive and visuospatial dysfunctions. As the possible morphological correlates of these cognitive SCA2 deficits are unclear we examined the cholinergic basal forebrain nuclei, which are believed to be crucial for several aspects of normal cognition and may contribute to impairments of cognitive functions under pathological conditions. Methods: …
Changes in brain oxidative metabolism induced by inhibitory avoidance learning and acute administration of amitriptyline
2007
The effects of antidepressant drugs on memory have been somewhat ignored, having been considered a mere side effect of these compounds. However, the memory impairment caused by several antidepressants could be considered to form part of their therapeutic effects. Amitriptyline is currently one of the most prescribed tricyclic antidepressants, and exerts marked anticholinergic and antihistaminergic effects. In this study, we evaluated the effects of inhibitory avoidance (IA) learning and acute administration of amitriptyline on brain oxidative metabolism. Brain oxidative metabolism was measured in several limbic regions using cytochrome oxidase (CO) quantitative histochemistry. Amitriptyline…
Syntax and conversation in aphasia. A strategic restrictive use of Spanish and Catalan connector QUE by aphasic speakers.
2009
Oral conversational data are deemed to be a relevant empirical source when it comes to formulating and supporting hypotheses about cognitive processes involved in aphasic linguistic production. With this assumption in mind, free conversational uses of the Spanish and Catalan connector QUE by fluent and non-fluent aphasic speakers are examined by contrasting them with normal speakers' (i.e. conversational partners') productions. Strictly ungrammatical uses in aphasic speakers are practically non-existent in free conversation. Nevertheless, this data permits one to characterize the aphasic production of the morpheme QUE as restrictive--to different degrees--with respect to normal production. …
Mono-stereo-autostereo: the evolution of 3-dimensional neurosurgical planning.
2012
BACKGROUND: In the past decade, surgery planning has changed significantly. The main reason is the improvements in computer graphical rendering power and display technology, which turned the plain graphics of the mid-1990s into interactive stereoscopic objects. OBJECTIVE: To report our experiences with 2 virtual reality systems used for planning neurosurgical operations. METHODS: A series of 208 operations were planned with the Dextroscope (Bracco AMT, Singapore) requiring the use of liquid crystal display shutter glasses. The participating neurosurgeons answered a questionnaire after the planning procedure and postoperatively. In a second prospective series of 33 patients, we used an autos…
Basal Forebrain Mediates Motivational Recruitment of Attention by Reward-Associated Cues.
2018
The basal forebrain, composed of distributed nuclei, including substantia innominata (SI), nucleus basalis and nucleus of the diagonal band of Broca plays a crucial neuromodulatory role in the brain. In particular, its projections to the prefrontal cortex have been shown to be important in a wide variety of brain processes and functions, including attention, learning and memory, arousal, and decision-making. In the present study, we asked whether the basal forebrain is involved in recruitment of cognitive effort in response to reward-related cues. This interaction between motivation and cognition is critically impacted in psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia. Using the Designer Rece…
Nucleus incertus contribution to hippocampal theta rhythm generation.
2006
The hippocampal theta rhythm is generated by the pacemaker activity of the medial septum-diagonal band of Broca (MS/DBB) neurons. These nuclei are influenced by brainstem structures that modulate the theta rhythm. The aim of the present work is to determine whether the nucleus incertus (NI), which has important anatomical connections with the MS/DBB, contributes to the hippocampal theta rhythm generation in rats. Hippocampal field activity was recorded in urethane-anaesthetized rats. Electrical stimulation of the NI not only evoked theta rhythm in the hippocampus, but also decreased the amplitude of delta waves. Unit recordings in the NI revealed either a non-rhythm discharge pattern in mos…
Synaptic connectivity of the cholinergic axons in the olfactory bulb of the cynomolgus monkey.
2015
The olfactory bulb (OB) of mammals receives cholinergic afferents from the horizontal limb of the diagonal band of Broca (HDB). At present, the synaptic connectivity of the cholinergic axons on the circuits of the OB has only been investigated in the rat. In this report, we analyze the synaptic connectivity of the cholinergic axons in the OB of the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis). Our aim is to investigate whether the cholinergic innervation of the bulbar circuits is phylogenetically conserved between macrosmatic and microsmatic mammals. Our results demonstrate that the cholinergic axons form synaptic contacts on interneurons. In the glomerular layer, their main targets are the peri…
Encoding of human action in Broca's area.
2009
International audience; Broca's area has been considered, for over a century, as the brain centre responsible for speech production. Modern neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence have suggested a wider functional role is played by this area. In addition to the evidence that it is involved in syntactical analysis, mathematical calculation and music processing, it has recently been shown that Broca's area may play some role in language comprehension and, more generally, in understanding actions of other individuals. As shown by functional magnetic resonance imaging, Broca's area is one of the cortical areas activated by hand/mouth action observation and it has been proposed that it may …