A series of neuropsychological tests were administered to a group of healthy children and another group suffering from common migraine. The tests demonstrated that children with common migraine do not have definitely abnormal personality traits even though inhibition of aggressivity and greater anxiety levels following certain environmental stimuli were seen. We also observed a decreased short- and long-term memory function in children with common migraine.
SUMMARY The clinical, neuropsychological and neuroradiological features of two patients affected by herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-1) encephalitis are described. An experimental study for the assessment of naming, recognition and description displayed in one patient a persistent significant impairment in naming living things. The other patient showed a failing "semantic memory" for the same categories, although a significant impairment emerged only for plants. In both patients, the late neuroradiological sequelae were localised mainly in the inferior and middle gyri of the left temporal lobe and in the left-side insula. In one patient, the right-side insula was also involved. The selective cerebral damage induced by HSV-1 is stressed and a correlation between the neuroradiological and neuropsychological findings is attempted. The stereotyped anatomical and neuropsychological changes lead to the belief that the virus may recognise, within the limbic system, particular cellular "strains" on the basis of their molecular specificity.Encephalitis caused by type 1 herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) is still a severe disorder, although its mortality rate has dropped from about 70% with placebo or inefficacious drug therapy"2 to about 40% with vidarabin3 and about 20% with acyclovir.4 As a result, an increasing number of patients now recover from the disease but are left with neurological sequelae ranging from severe dementia with markedly disturbed behaviour to mild impairment of memory and speech. Occasionally, however, some patients do appear to recover completely.The two patients reported here had an excellent recovery of the higher cortical functions, although anomia in one case and an impairment of semantic memory in the other persisted. In both cases the sequelae involved such semantic categories as animals and plants.Categorisation and, consequently, the formation of "concepts" is one of the primary cognitive processes in man. Concepts play an important role in cognitive processes, as they allow humans to deal with objects Address for reprint requests: Dr Viadimiro Pietrini, Department of Neurology, "San Bortolo" Hospital, 36100 Vicenza, Italy.Received 9 October 1987 and in revised form 5 April 1988. Accepted 11 April 1988 and events even when there is no concrete referent for them. Concepts are "stored" and can be "retrieved" and "expressed" as part of an organisation which is based on semantic categories, or general concepts.It is not our purpose to discuss philosophical and psychological principles underlying the organisation of categories. We merely point out that selective deficits for certain semantic categories have been reported in some patients without all other categories being affected as a result. The first study conducted on a large series of 135 aphasic patients5 showed a high incidence of dissociation for six semantic categories, namely body parts, actions, objects, colours, letters, and numbers. In the last 10 years, category deficits have been studied extensively by Warrington and Shallice, who b...
Neuropsychological outcome of 100 patients with severe head injuries is correlated with their clinical condition on admission. The aim of this paper is to estimate the reliability of several early indices of brain damage severity in formulating a prognosis. Both the Glasgow Coma Scale and the neurological syndrome involved appeared to be highly reliable in this respect. The duration of coma and of posttraumatic amnesia was not as significant. Since these two parameters were assessed when reviewing the cases, they have to be considered only as retrospective judgments. The findings emphasized the importance of reflex ocular motility and the value of recording electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, particularly EEG sleep patterns. The relationship between rapid eye movement sleep impairment and cognitive defects was highly significant. Analysis of surgical observations demonstrated that purely compressive expanding lesions were not as harmful as parenchymal damage. Of paramount importance was the time lapse between injury and surgery, since secondary lesions may develop and affect cerebral areas that are involved both in sleep organization and in memory functions.
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