Nittheilung aus dem Lahoratorium von E. von Meyer.) So zahlreich die Untersuchungen sind, welche die Condensation von Aldehyden nnd aromatischen Aminen zum Gegenstand haben, so kann man doch nicht behaupten, dass clime je nach den obwaltenden Bedingungen verschiedenartig vedaufende Reaction in erschopfender Weise untersucht ist. Besonders gilt dies von dem Verhalten des Formaldehyds zu den Aminen, wie noch die jiingst veroffentlichten T'ersuche Reed's uber die Entstehnng von (j-Naphtoacridin') aus p-Naphtylamin und nascirendem Formaldehyd gelehrt haben.2) Von dem naheliegenden Gedanken ausgehend, diese Reaction auf andere Aminbasen auszudehnen und die muthmasslich zuerst sich bildenden Zwischenprodukte (Hydroacridine) zu isoliren , habe ich die nachfolgend beschriebenen Versuche3) unternommen. Zuniichst ging ich von einem bereits von R e e d mit Anilin angestellten Vorversuch 4, aus, der ihm ein Produkt lieferte , welches zwar nach seinen Eigenschaften fur das unlosliche Hydroacridin gehalten , jedoch nicht analysirt wurde. Eine Reihe genau nach der Vorschrift von R e e d angestellter Versuche liess gar bald Zweifel an dieser Dies. Journ. [2] 35, 318. z , Die durch Wechselwirkung von Formaldehyd mit Anilin und iihnlichen Basen von T o l l e n s und W e l l i n g t o n (Ber. 18, 3298) erhaltenen Verbindungen gehoren einer ganz anderen Classe von Korpern an, als die hier in Frage stehenden. 3, L. Claisen hat inzwischen (Ann. Chem. 237, 272) die Bildung eines zu den Hydroacridinen gehorenden Korpers durch Wechselwirkung von Benzaldehyd und 8-Naphtylnmin nachgewiesen. &) Dies. Journ. [ Z ] 35, 319. Journal f. prakt. Chemie [2] Bd. 36. i, Ann. Chem. 138, 265. 2, Die Substauz enthielt nicht unbedeutende Verunreinignngen von Kieselsaure und Tbonerdc. Selbst bei Anwendung von aus Alkohol umkrystallisirtem Kalihydrat trnten dieselben auf. Wurden diese Beimengungen durch Arbeiten in Platingefassen und Uebersattigen mit wassrigem Ammoniak vermieden , so trat trotzdem ein Verharzen des Produktes ein. ') Ber. 12, 8. 1170. 4, Ber. 12, S. 810. Das. 1789. 3 , Ann. 206, 105. 106.

We studied the trigeminal nerve in seven healthy volunteers and six patients with trigeminal neuralgia using the diffusion tensor imaging derived parameter fractional anisotropy (FA). While controls did not show a difference between both sides, there was a reduction of FA in the affected nerve in three of six patients with accompanying nerve-vessel conflict and atrophy. Reversibility of abnormally low FA values was demonstrated in one patient successfully treated with microvascular decompression.

The subarachnoid space was examined with real-time ultrasonography (US) in 89 healthy infants. US of the brain in all infants revealed no abnormalities. Three variables were measured in the coronal plane at the level of the foramen of Monro: the sinocortical width (SCW) ranged from 0.4 to 3.3 mm, the craniocortical width (CCW) from 0.3 to 6.3 mm, and the interhemispheric width (IHW) from 0.5 to 8.2 mm. All variables can be used routinely, as the SCW could be demonstrated in all infants, and the CCW and IHW were demonstrated in 96% (85 of 89). Correlation of sonographic measurements with the independent variables age, head circumference, body weight, and body length was poor. To differentiate normal from pathologically dilated subarachnoid spaces, the following upper limits are proposed on the basis of the 95th percentile: 3 mm for SCW, 4 mm for CCW, and 6 mm for IHW.

Background: Semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tests are routinely used in screening for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In this task, participants name as many items as possible of a semantic category under a time constraint. Clinicians measure task performance manually by summing the number of correct words and errors. More fine-grained variables add valuable information to clinical assessment, but are time-consuming. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate whether automatic analysis of the SVF could provide these as accurate as manual and thus, support qualitative screening of neurocognitive impairment. Methods: SVF data were collected from 95 older people with MCI (n = 47), Alzheimer’s or related dementias (ADRD; n = 24), and healthy controls (HC; n = 24). All data were annotated manually and automatically with clusters and switches. The obtained metrics were validated using a classifier to distinguish HC, MCI, and ADRD. Results: Automatically extracted clusters and switches were highly correlated (r = 0.9) with manually established values, and performed as well on the classification task separating HC from persons with ADRD (area under curve [AUC] = 0.939) and MCI (AUC = 0.758). Conclusion: The results show that it is possible to automate fine-grained analyses of SVF data for the assessment of cognitive decline.

Although motivational reinforcers are often used to enhance the attractiveness of trainings of cognitive control in children, little is known about how such motivational manipulations of the setting contribute to separate gains in motivation and cognitive-control performance. Here we provide a framework for systematically investigating the impact of a motivational video-game setting on the training motivation, the task performance, and the transfer success in a task-switching training in middle-aged children (8–11 years of age). We manipulated both the type of training (low-demanding/single-task training vs. high-demanding/task-switching training) as well as the motivational setting (low-motivational/without video-game elements vs. high-motivational/with video-game elements) separately from another. The results indicated that the addition of game elements to a training setting enhanced the intrinsic interest in task practice, independently of the cognitive demands placed by the training type. In the task-switching group, the high-motivational training setting led to an additional enhancement of task and switching performance during the training phase right from the outset. These motivation-induced benefits projected onto the switching performance in a switching situation different from the trained one (near-transfer measurement). However, in structurally dissimilar cognitive tasks (far-transfer measurement), the motivational gains only transferred to the response dynamics (speed of processing). Hence, the motivational setting clearly had a positive impact on the training motivation and on the paradigm-specific task-switching abilities; it did not, however, consistently generalize on broad cognitive processes. These findings shed new light on the conflation of motivation and cognition in childhood and may help to refine guidelines for designing adequate training interventions.

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The standard dementia screening tool Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the standard dementia staging tool Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR) are prominent methods for answering questions whether a person might have dementia and about the dementia severity respectively. These methods are time consuming and require well-educated personnel to administer. Conversely, cognitive tests, such as the Semantic Verbal Fluency (SVF), demand little time. With this as a starting point, we investigate the relation between SVF results and MMSE/CDR-SOB scores. We use regression models to predict scores based on persons' SVF performance. Over a set of 179 patients with different degree of dementia, we achieve a mean absolute error of of 2.2 for MMSE (range 0-30) and 1.7 for CDR-SOB (range 0-18). True and predicted scores agree with a Cohen's κ of 0.76 for MMSE and 0.52 for CDR-SOB. We conclude that our approach has potential to serve as a cheap dementia screening, possibly even in non-clinical settings.

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