The Contribution of Cognitive Control Networks in Word Selection Processing in Parkinson's Disease: Novel Insights from a Functional Connectivity Study.

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are impaired in word production when the word has to be selected among competing alternatives requiring higher attentional resources. In PD, word selection processes are correlated with the structural integrity of the inferior frontal gyrus, which is critical for response selection, and the uncinate fasciculus, which is necessary for processing lexical information. In early PD, we investigated the role of the main cognitive large-scale networks, namely the salience network (SN), the central executive networks (CENs), and the default mode network (DMN), in word selection.

Medical Information Extraction With NLP-Powered QABots: A Real-World Scenario.

The advent of computerized medical recording systems in healthcare facilities has made data retrieval tasks easier, compared to manual recording. Nevertheless, the potential of the information contained within medical records remains largely untapped, mostly due to the time and effort required to extract data from unstructured documents. Natural Language Processing (NLP) represents a promising solution to this challenge, as it enables the use of automated text-mining tools for clinical practitioners.

"False friends" in Language Subcortical Mapping: A Systematic Literature Review.

Background: Subcortical brain mapping in awake glioma surgery might optimize the extent of resection while minimizing neurological morbidity, but it requires a correct interpretation of responses evoked during surgery. To define, with a systematic review: 1) a comprehensive 'map' of the principal white matter bundles involved in awake surgery on language-related networks, describing the most employed tests and the expected responses; 2) In linguistics, a false friend is a word in a different language that looks or sounds like a word in given language but differs significantly in meaning. Similarly, our aim is to give the surgeons a comprehensive review of potentially misleading responses, namely "false friends", in subcortical language mapping.

Associations Between Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background: The Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT), assessing verbal episodic memory with controlled learning and semantic cueing, has been recommended for detecting the genuine encoding and storage deficits characterizing AD-related memory disorders.

Objective: The present study aims at investigating the ability of FCSRT in predicting cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) evidence of amyloid-β positivity in subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and exploring its associations with amyloidopathy, tauopathy and neurodegeneration biomarkers.

Methods: 120 aMCI subjects underwent comprehensive neurological and neuropsychological examinations, including the FCSRT assessment, and CSF collection; CSF Aβ42/40 ratio, p-tau181, and total-tau quantification were conducted by an automated CLEIA method on Lumipulse G1200.

Clinical validity of the Italian adaptation of the Uniform Data Set Neuropsychological Test Battery (I-UDSNB) in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: The identification and staging of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) represent a challenge, especially in the prodromal stage of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), when cognitive changes can be subtle. Worldwide efforts were dedicated to select and harmonize available neuropsychological instruments. In Italy, the Italian Network of Neuroscience and Neuro-Rehabilitation has promoted the adaptation of the Uniform Data Set Neuropsychological Test Battery (I-UDSNB), collecting normative data from 433 healthy controls (HC).

Neural correlates of empathy in mild cognitive impairment.

The occurrence of clinically significant changes in empathy is a matter of debate in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Altered empathic mechanisms observed in AD may be a consequence of cognitive impairment, more specifically of reduced mental flexibility and self-regulation. The present study explored possible changes in empathy for subjects in the prodromal phase of AD, namely mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD, and of their neural substrates.

Neuropsychological predictors of conversion from mild cognitive impairment to dementia at different timepoints.

Introduction: Impairment of episodic memory is largely considered the main cognitive marker of prodromic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nevertheless, the neuropathological process in AD starts several years before and, apart from biomarkers well defined in the Amyloid (A), Tauopathy (T), Neurodegeneration (N) framework, early clinical and neuropsychological markers able to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD before the appearance of memory disorders are lacking in clinical practice. Investigations on semantic memory have shown promising results in providing an earlier marker of dementia in MCI patients.

Basal ganglia ischaemic infarction after thrombectomy: cognitive impairment at acute stage.

Background And Purpose: After successful mechanical thrombectomy for middle cerebral artery occlusion, basal ganglia infarction is commonly detectable. Whilst the functional outcome of these patients is often good, less knowledge is available about the cognitive outcome. The aim of our study was to assess the presence of cognitive impairment within 1 week after thrombectomy.

Apperceptive and Associative Forms of Phonagnosia.

Purpose Of Review: Pronagnosia is a rare acquired or developmental pathological condition that consists of a selective difficulty to recognize familiar people by their voices. It can be distinguished into two different categories: apperceptive phonagnosia, which denotes a purely perceptual form of voice recognition disorder; and associative phonagnosia, in which patients have no perceptual defects, but cannot evaluate if the voice of a known person is or not familiar. The neural substrate of these two forms of voice recognition is still controversial, but it could concern different components of the core temporal voice areas and of extratemporal voice processing areas.

Self-assessment of empathy uncovers defective self-awareness in mild cognitive impairment.

Objective: Self-assessment scales are broadly used to evaluate empathy in neurological patients, but it is conceivable that some discrepancy with caregiver evaluation may emerge as consequence of reduced self-awareness. The aim of the present study was to verify the presence of discrepancies in the self-assessment of empathy in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to explore their neural correlates.

Method: Twenty MCI patients and 38 healthy controls (HCs) underwent the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), exploring the following four aspects of empathy: perspective taking (PT), fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress.

Which components of famous people recognition are lateralized? A study of face, voice and name recognition disorders in patients with neoplastic or degenerative damage of the right or left anterior temporal lobes.

We administered to large groups of patients with neoplastic or degenerative damage affecting the right or left ATL, the 'Famous People Recognition Battery' (FPRB), in which subjects are required to recognize the same 40 famous people through their faces, voices and names, to clarify which components of famous people recognition are lateralized. At the familiarity level, we found, as expected, a dissociation between a greater impairment of patients with right ATL lesions on the non-verbal (face and voice) recognition modalities and of those with left ATL lesions on name familiarity. Equally expected were results obtained at the naming level, because the worse naming scores for faces and voices were observed in left-sided patients.

The Cerebellum Is a Key Structure in the Neural Network for Mentalizing: An MRI Study in the Behavioral Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia.

The behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is primarily characterized by deficits in social behaviour and theory of mind (ToM). Although a consensus has been reached on the roles of the cerebellum in social cognition and ToM, its specific contribution to social impairments of bvFTD has never been specifically investigated. The aim of this study was to assess cerebellar structural and functional changes in patients with bvFTD and their potential association with ToM deficits of patients.

Italian adaptation of the Uniform Data Set Neuropsychological Test Battery (I-UDSNB 1.0): development and normative data.

Background: Neuropsychological testing plays a cardinal role in the diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease. A major concern is represented by the heterogeneity of the neuropsychological batteries currently adopted in memory clinics and healthcare centers. The current study aimed to solve this issue.

Neuroanatomical Correlates of Semantic Features of Narrative Speech in Semantic and Logopenic Variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia.

The semantic variant of a primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) is characterized by progressive disruption of semantic knowledge. This study aimed to compare the semantic features of words produced during a narrative speech in svPPA and the logopenic variant of PPA (lvPPA) and to explore their neuroanatomical correlates. Six patients with svPPA and sixteen with lvPPA underwent narrative speech tasks.

Neuronavigated Magnetic Stimulation combined with cognitive training for Alzheimer's patients: an EEG graph study.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder in elderly subjects. Recent studies verified the effects of cognitive training combined with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS-COG) in AD patients. Here, we analyzed neuropsychological and neurophysiological data, derived from electroencephalography (EEG), to evaluate the effects of a 6-week protocol of rTMS-COG in 72 AD.

Being the Family Caregiver of a Patient With Dementia During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Lockdown.

Family caregivers of patients with dementia are at high risk of stress and burden, and quarantine due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have increased the risk of psychological disturbances in this population. The current study was carried out during the national lockdown declared in March 2020 by the Italian government as a containment measure of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and is the first nationwide survey on the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the mental health of dementia informal caregivers. Eighty-seven dementia centers evenly distributed on the Italian territory enrolled 4,710 caregiver-patient pairs.