Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

Mendez, M F; Geehan, G R

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.1pmid: 2450968

The symptoms of two patients with bilateral cortical auditory lesions evolved from cortical deafness to other auditory syndromes: generalised auditory agnosia, amusia and/or pure word deafness, and a residual impairment of temporal sequencing. On investigation, both had dysacusis, absent middle latency evoked responses, acoustic errors in sound recognition and matching, inconsistent auditory behaviours, and similarly disturbed psychoacoustic discrimination tasks. These findings indicate that the different clinical syndromes caused by cortical auditory lesions form a spectrum of related auditory processing disorders. Differences between syndromes may depend on the degree of involvement of a primary cortical processing system, the more diffuse accessory system, and possibly the efferent auditory system.

Wade, D T; Wood, V A; Hewer, R L

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.10pmid: 3351509

Sixty two consecutive patients admitted to hospital and surviving 6 months were tested regularly over the first 3 months after their stroke to plot recovery in three aspects of cognition: visual neglect, assessed using a cancellation task, attention span assessed using digit span, and verbal recall, tested by counting number of words remembered from a list of 10 words. Normative data were collected for the cancellation test. Fifteen patients showed recovery from visual neglect, 10 improvement in attention span and nine improvement in verbal recall. The difficulties of measuring recovery of cognitive function after stroke are discussed.

Levin, H S; High, W M; Eisenberg, H M

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.14pmid: 3351514

To investigate forgetting during recovery from head injury, colour slides were initially projected for long durations to ensure acquisition on a recognition test given 10 minutes later. Patients tested during posttraumatic amnesia (PTA) exhibited accelerated forgetting over 32 hours as compared with head trauma patients studied after the period of PTA and normal controls.

D'Alessandro, R; Benassi, G; Lenzi, P L; Gamberini, G; Sacquegna, T; De Carolis, P; Lugaresi, E

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.21pmid: 3258357

An epidemiological survey on headache was performed in the Republic of San Marino, which is the smallest independent State in the world, located near the Adriatic Coast, within Italy. Among a random sample of 1500 inhabitants over 7 years of age the frequency of headache, severe headache and migraine in the previous year was 35.3%, 12.2%, 9.3% respectively for men, and 46.2%, 20.6%, 18% for women. The most common factors reported to provoke headache were emotional stress, physical strain, lack of sleep, particular foods or drinks and for women menstruation. Migraine patients differed from people without headache in that they had a higher consumption of coffee, more frequently reported bad sleep, allergic disease and previous appendectomy. Furthermore, migraine patients and severe headache sufferers had a higher diastolic blood pressure than non headache subjects.

Parkhouse, N; Le Quesne, P M

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.28pmid: 3351528

A technique is described for the quantitative assessment of peripheral nociceptive C fibre function by measurement of the axon reflex flare. Acetylcholine, introduced by electrophoresis, is used to stimulate a ring of nociceptive C fibre endings at the centre of which the increase in blood flow is measured with a laser Doppler flowmeter. This flare (neurogenic vasodilatation) has been compared with mechanically or chemically stimulated non-neurogenic cutaneous vasodilation. The flare is abolished by local anaesthetic and is absent in denervated skin. The flare has been measured on the sole of the foot of 96 healthy subjects; its size decreases with age in males, but not in females.

Arendt-Nielsen, L; Bjerring, P

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.35pmid: 3351529

The clinical applications of thermal sensory and pain thresholds have been very limited due to large intra-individual variations. In the present paper CO2 and argon lasers were used as thermal stimulators, and the different factors (stimulus parameters and skin conditions) affecting the thresholds are described. The intra-individual variations obtained in sensory (9.3%) and pain (4.3%) thresholds were very low, which suggests that the method can be applied for clinical purposes.

Bjerring, P; Arendt-Nielsen, L

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.43pmid: 3351530

The shape (amplitude and latency) of single cortical responses to argon laser stimulation was found to match six perceptual classes: three pre-pain and three pain. The amplitude of the pain related single cortical responses correlated with the perceived feeling of pain. Easy detectable responses were obtained because habituation to the stimuli was reduced and a high degree of attention was given to each stimulus. Single cortical responses to argon laser stimuli are suggested as a new quantitative technique with application in the assessment of function in the thermal and nociceptive pathways.

Katayama, Y; Tsubokawa, T; Maejima, S; Hirayama, T; Yamamoto, T

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.50pmid: 2832547

The corticospinal direct (D) response to stimulation of the motor cortex exposed for intracranial surgery was recorded in 20 cases from wire electrodes inserted into the spinal epidural space. The D response was obtained from stimulation of restricted areas of the cerebral cortex, that is, the hand, trunk and thigh areas of the motor cortex. The D response was resistant to anaesthesia and unaffected by muscle relaxants. Thus, recordings of the D response are useful for identifying the location of the motor cortex during intracranial surgery under general anaesthesia.

Schriefer, T N; Mills, K R; Murray, N M; Hess, C W

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.60pmid: 3351531

A magnetic stimulator was used for direct transcutaneous stimulation of the intracranial portion of the facial nerve in 15 normal subjects and in patients with Bell's palsy, demyelinating neuropathy, traumatic facial palsy and pontine glioma. Compound muscle action potentials (CMAPs) thus elicited in the orbicularis oris muscle of controls were of similar amplitude but longer latency (1.3 SD 0.15 ms) compared with CMAPs produced by conventional electrical stimulation at the stylomastoid foramen. No response to magnetic stimulation could be recorded from the affected side in 15 of 16 patients with Bell's palsy. Serial studies in two patients demonstrated that the facial nerve remained inexcitable by magnetic stimulation despite marked improvement in clinical function. In the patient with a pontine glioma, the CMAP elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation was of low amplitude but normal latency. In six of seven patients with demyelinating neuropathy, the response to intracranial magnetic stimulation was significantly delayed. Magnetic stimulation produced no response in either patient with traumatic facial palsy. Although the precise site of facial nerve stimulation is uncertain, evidence points to the labyrinthine segment of the facial canal as the most likely location.

Polinsky, R J; Taylor, I L; Weise, V; Kopin, I J

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.1.67pmid: 3280734

High basal gastrin levels in pure autonomic failure could result from peripheral vagus nerve involvement, whereas the increased response during hypoglycaemia may reflect adrenergic supersensitivity. A reduced gastrin increment in multiple system atrophy was found following insulin-hypoglycaemia and is consistent with decreased gastrin release secondary to diminished central sympathetic nervous system activation in the absence of peripheral denervation supersensitivity.