A number of studies have reported neuropsychological deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). These have mainly implicated frontal or temporal dysfunction. In this study, we compared the performances of OCD patients and normal subjects using a factorial interpretation of the Wechsler Memory Scale. Our results do not demonstrate significant memory impairment in OCD patients but point to the possibility of frontal lobe dysfunction as a factor in the pathophysiology of OCD.

M. Abbruzzese

L. Bellodi

S. Ferri

S. Scarone

Memory Functioning in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

It is proposed that analysis of illiteracy can not only discern the influence of schooling background on neuropsychological test performance, but also contributes to obtaining a better understanding about the cerebral organization of cognitive activity. Brain organization of cognition, and cognitive sequelae of brain pathology in illiterates are reviewed. It is concluded that: (1) cognitive abilities, as measured by standard neuropsychological tests, are significantly influenced by schooling background; and (2) educational and cultural variables may affect the degree (albeit, not the direction) of hemispheric dominance for language, and other cognitive abilities. A more bilateral representation of cognitive abilities in illiterates is hypothesized.

M. Rosselli

Neuropsychology of Illiteracy

Using current neurological and neuropsychological literature, and the analysis of different cultural and historical conditions, people recognition is analyzed. Different &#x201c;subsystems&#x201d; or &#x201c;modules&#x201d; could be involved in individuals' recognition: living versus non-living, own species versus other species, familiar versus non-familiar, males versus females, and individual identification versus emotional identification. Not only visual, but also auditory and even olfactory information may be involved in people recognition. Visual information involved in people recognition is proposed to include not only the perception of faces, but also the perception of whole body and gait, clothes, emotional expressions, and individual marks.

A. Ardila

People Recognition: A Historical/Anthropological Perspective

A historical review of calculation abilities is presented. Counting, starting with finger sequencing, has been observed in different ancient and contemporary cultures, whereas number representation and arithmetic abilities are found only during the last 5000&#x2013;6000 years. The rationale for selecting a base of ten in most numerical systems and the clinical association between acalculia and finger agnosia are analyzed. Finger agnosia (as a restricted form of autotopagnosia), right&#x2013;left discrimination disturbances, semantic aphasia, and acalculia are proposed to comprise a single neuropsychological syndrome associated with left angular gyrus damage. A classification of calculation disturbances resulting from brain damage is presented. It is emphasized that using historical/anthropological analysis, it becomes evident that acalculia, finger agnosia, and disorders in right&#x2013;left discrimination (as in general, in the use of spatial concepts) must constitute a single clinical syndrome, resulting from the disruption of some common brain activity and the impairment of common cognitive mechanisms.

On the Origins of Calculation Abilities

Historical evolution and cross-cultural differences in spatial abilities are analyzed. Spatial abilities have been found to be significantly associated with the complexity of geographical conditions and survival demands. Although impaired spatial cognition is found in cases of, exclusively or predominantly, right hemisphere pathology, it is proposed that this asymmetry may depend on the degree of training in spatial abilities. It is further proposed that spatial cognition might have evolved in a parallel way with cultural evolution and environmental demands. Contemporary city humans might be using spatial abilities in some new, conceptual tasks that did not exist in prehistoric times: mathematics, reading, writing, mechanics, music, etc. Cross-cultural analysis of spatial abilities in different human groups, normalization of neuropsychological testing instruments, and clinical observations of spatial ability disturbances in people with different cultural backgrounds and various spatial requirements, are required to construct a neuropsychological theory of brain organization of spatial cognition.

Historical Evolution of Spatial Abilities

The neuroanatomical region that has most prominently altered with the advancing cognitive competency of the human is the prefrontal cortex, particularly the rostral extreme. While the prefrontal cortex does not appear to contain the neural networks that carry out cognitive activities, the management of these high level manipulations, so uniquely characteristic of the human, appears dependent upon the prefrontal cortex.

D. F. Benson

Prefrontal Abilities

Introduction: Toward a Historical/Anthropological Approach in Neuropsychology

E. M. R. Critchley

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Ciba Foundation Symposium 173, Wiley, Chichester, 1993

We measured cerebral blood flow, oxygen metabolism, glucose utilization, and dopamine metabolism in the brain of a patient with corticobasal degeneration using positron emission tomography (PET). The clinical picture is distinctive, comprising features referable to both cortical and basal ganglionic dysfunction. Brain imagings of glucose and dopamine metabolism can demonstrate greater abnormalities in the cerebral cortex and in the striatum contralateral to the more affected side than those of blood flow and oxygen metabolism. This unique combination study measuring both cerebral glucose utilization and dopamine metabolism in the nigrostriatal system can provide efficient information about the dysfunctions which are correlated with individual clinical symptoms, and this study is essential to diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration.

H. Nagasawa

T. Imamura

H. Nomura

M. Itoh

T. Ido

A Case of Corticobasal Degeneration Studied with Positron Emission Tomography

Federico Micheli

Mabel Gatto

Manuel Fernandez Pardal

Letter to the Editor

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Behavioural Neurology - Table of contents 1993

title

Behavioural Neurology provides a platform for researchers and clinicians working in the areas of cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, and neuropsychiatry.

Behavioural Neurology