Numerosity impairment in corticobasal syndrome.

Objective: We assessed the representation of numerosity in corticobasal syndrome (CBS), a neurodegenerative condition affecting the parietal lobe.

Method: Patients judged whether a target numerosity (e.g.

Reversal of the concreteness effect in semantic dementia.

Patients with semantic dementia (SD) have a striking impairment in semantic memory, but the basis for this deficit is unclear. We examined semantic memory for concrete and abstract verbs with a two-alternative, forced-choice measure of lexical semantic associative knowledge. Patients with SD had significantly greater difficulty with concrete verbs (z = -3.

Hierarchical organization of scripts: converging evidence from FMRI and frontotemporal degeneration.

The present study examined the organization of complex familiar activities, known as "scripts" (e.g., "going fishing").

Role of Pax4 in Pdx1-VP16-mediated liver-to-endocrine pancreas transdifferentiation.

Although Pdx1-VP16 expression induces hepatic cell transdifferentiation into pancreatic precursor cells (WB-1), these incompletely reprogrammed cells fail to become glucose-sensitive insulin-producing cells in the absence of the activation of late-stage pancreatic transcription factors. As Pax4 promotes late-stage beta-cell differentiation and maturation, we generated lentiviral vector (LV) containing mouse Pax4 gene and developed two hepatic cell lines expressing Pax4 in the absence (WB-2 cells) or presence (WB-1A cells) of Pdx1-VP16, via LV-mediated gene transfer. Functional Pax4 protein expression in WB-2 and WB-1A cells was confirmed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and Pdx1-VP16 protein expression in WB-1 and WB-1A cells was confirmed by Western blotting.