Verbal learning in frontal patients: area 9 is critical for employing semantic strategies.

Introduction: Learning is a long-term memory process heavily influenced by the control processes implemented by working memory, including recognition of semantic properties of items by which subjects generate a semantic structure of engrams.

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the verbal learning strategies of patients affected by a tumor in the left frontal lobe to highlight the role of area 9.

Method: Ten patients with frontal low-grade gliomas and ten healthy control subjects, matched for age, sex and education, were recruited and then evaluated with a two-part verbal learning test: multi-trial word list learning in free recall, and multi-trial word list learning preceded by an explicit semantic strategy cue.

Mild brain injury and anticoagulants: Less is enough.

Background: Despite the higher theoretical risk of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in anticoagulated patients with mild head injury, the value of sequential head CT scans to identify bleeding remains controversial. This study evaluated the utility of 2 sequential CT scans at a 48-hour interval (CT1 and CT2) in patients with mild head trauma (Glasgow Coma Scale 13-15) taking oral anticoagulants.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical records of all patients on chronic anticoagulation treatment admitted to the emergency department for mild head injury.

Revised and extended norms for a picture naming test sensitive to category dissociations.

This study presents revised and extended norms for a picture naming test [Laiacona et al. (Arch Neurol Psicol Psichiatr 54:209-248, 1993)], based on 80 Snodgrass and Vanderwart (J Exp Psychol Human Learn Mem 6:174-215, 1980) pictures, devised to detect a categorical dissociation in the naming of items between biological and man-made categories. This survey is based on data from 215 healthy Italian participants.