[Mismatch negativity and its hemodynamic equivalent (based on fMRI) in research of speech perception in healthy and in speech disorders].

The review is devoted to the use of electrophysiological index of auditory discrimination, known as "mismatch negativity" (MMN), and its hemodynamic equivalent obtained by functional magnetic resonamce imaging (fMRI) to study speech perception in normal and pathological conditions. Most attention is paid to works with using MMN as a neurophysiological index of the phonemic hearing impairment in patients with sensory aphasia. The MMN applicability for examination of speech compensation degree is substantiated.

[Changes of EEG power spectrum in response to the emotional auditory stimuli in patients in acute and recovery stages of TBI (traumatic brain injury)].

We investigated variability of responses to emotionally important auditory stimulation in different groups of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) in acute state or recovery. The patients sampling consisted of three different groups: patients in coma or vegetative state, patients with Severe and Moderate TBI in recovery period. Subjects were stimulated with auditory stimuli containing important physiological sounds (coughing, vomiting), emotional sounds (laughing, crying), nature sounds (bird song, barking), unpleasant household sounds (nails scratching the glass), natural sounds (sea, rain, fire) and neutral sounds (white noise).

[Brain mapping in verbal and spatial thinking].

The goal of this study was to describe the topography of the active cortical areas and subcortical structuresin verbal and spatial thinking. The method of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used. 18 right-handed subjects participated in the study.

[Human cognitive space: coincidence of the models, built on base of EEG rhythms and psychometric measurements].

Earlier it was shown that the specific rhythmical EEG patterns appear during solution of the particular cognitive tasks, such as spatial and verbal ones. In this study not only basic, but also mixed, intermediate cognitive tasks were used. The aim was to estimate the similarity and the difference between EEG spectra during performance of the whole line of the thinking operations.

["Brain reading": achievements, perspectives and ethical problems].

The new trend in brain research designated as brain reading is considered. This research deals with decoding the informational content of the brain processing via its physiological parameters. Such studies are based on rather complicated methods of mathematical analysis.

[The influence of auditory rhythmic stimulation on the subjective time flow and the reaction time in cognitive tasks].

The influence of rhythmic stimulation on subjective time flow and cognitive processes was studied. Forty four subjects had to categorize abstract, concrete and pseudo words, or duration of stimuli in series with different parallel auditory stimulation (simulated clock ticks with increased (1.25 Hz), normal (1.

[Genetic and social factors in developing of aggression].

The association of 5-HTTLPR gene polymorthism and aggression was studied in control group of males and females and in the athletes. The sport activities were found to decrease the aggression: the effect persist for the synchronized swimmers and for the wrestlers. Control group of males were characterized by higher aggression scores (Assault, Negativism, Suspicion and Verbal aggression scales of Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory) compared to females.

[Some implications of the "consciousness and brain" problem].

Three issues are discussed: the possible mechanism of subjective events, the rhythmic coding of thinking operations and the possible brain basis of understanding. 1. Several approaches have been developed to explain how subjective experience emerges from brain activity.

Two semantic systems in the brain for rapid and slow differentiation of abstract and concrete words.

Most studies of semantic processing address changes in the late (300-800 msec) components of evoked potentials. However, recent years have seen the appearance of data showing that humans can perceive the sense of stimuli presented to them in significantly shorter periods of time. We report here studies of the mechanism of semantic analysis of written abstract and concrete words in four series of experiments: 1) reading of words on a monitor screen; 2) simple classification of all presented words into the categories "abstract" and "concrete;" 3) complex, i.

[Two semantic brain systems for rapid and slow differentiation of the abstract and concrete words].

In the previous studies, semantic processing was repeatedly found to be reflected in the late (300-800 ms) components of event-related potentials (ERP). However, a human may catch the meaning of the words much earlier. In this work we investigated brain mechanisms of semantic analysis of abstract and concrete written words in four experimental conditions: (1) simple reading (a subjects had to read words to him/herself); (2) simple classification (a subjects had to classify presented words into abstract and concrete categories); (3) cued and (4) uncued selective classification conditions (a subject had to classify only the words typed in a particular color).

[Genetic basis of time perception in athletes].

The association between the subjective time perception and polymorphism of some genes, regulating activity of serotonin and dopamine, was studied in 89 synchronized swimmers. COMT gene, responsible for dopamine destruction, influences on reproduction of short time intervals (1-2 s). 5-HT2A and MAOA genes, regulating activity of serotonin, influence on subjective time flow.

[Surgical correction of the biliary ducts injury while performance of laparoscopic cholecystectomy].

There were analyzed the results of treatment of 65 patients, in whom unintended injury of biliary ducts occurred while performance of laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 1993-2005 yrs, including 9 patients, operated in the clinic and 56--in other hospitals. For correction of intraoperatively revealed injuries of biliary ducts there were formated bilio-biliary anastomosis, cholecystoenteroanastomosis--in 1, hepaticojejunoanastomosis end to side (in 2), "high" hepaticojejunoanastomosis (in 5). If the injuries were revealed more lately, application of two-staged treatment was needed in majority of cases.

[Dipole models for the sources of late evoked potential components in verbal tasks for intermodal attention and memory in humans].

In this paper we aimed at studying brain structures involved in intermodal attention and memory processes. This was accomplished by dipole modeling of the difference waves of event-related potentials recorded during the performance of verbal tasks and in the control condition. The models were constructed independently from each other for six difference waves obtained by subtracting different experimental conditions.

[Diagnostic algorithms and features of clinical course of congenital heart diseases in infants with lung anomalies].

The paper discusses the influence of lung anomalies on the progress of congenital heart diseases (CHD) in infants, as well as diagnostic value of radiography and ultraspeed computed tomography (CT). The four-year experience of the authors includes preoperative examination of 178 infants with CHD (mean age 5.8 +/- 0.

[Nocturnal biting activity of mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae) in Volgograd and its environs].

The nocturnal biting activity of mosquitoes was investigated by a Berezansev's bell and bird traps as baits in August 2003. Among 7 man-attacking species, C. modestus, C.

[Selective attention and memory: evoked potentials in visual and auditory verbal competition].

The brain mechanisms of the selective verbal attention were studied using evoked potential (EP) technique. It was shown that the late "cognitive" EP components (400-800 ms) related to memory function were more positive to the words presented via a relevant sensory channel and more negative to irrelevant words. The hypothesis is advanced that words delivered via two competing sensory channels, such as visual and auditory, are perceived, i.

Studies of cortical interactions over short periods of time during the search for verbal associations.

Interactions between cortical areas were studied during the search for verbal associations and reading of words. The functional anatomy and the sequence of involvement of cortical areas during the solution of these tasks have been described previously, in studies using positron emission tomography and multichannel recordings of evoked potentials combined with identification of the locations of dipole sources [8, 9, 19, 25]. Cortical interactions reflected in terms of the synchronization of EEG rhythms were studied by developing a method based on correlating curve wavelets, which allows the moments at which this synchronization occurs to be identified over short periods of time comparable with the speeds of individual thought operations (up to 100 msec).

[Comparative assessment of hemodynamic parameters in ventricular septal defect, obtained by Doppler echocardiography and catheterization of cardiac cavities].

The study was undertaken to assess hemodynamic parameters by Doppler echocardiography in patients with ventricular septal defect (VSD) and pulmonary hypertension. Seventy-two patients aged 5 months to 9 years (mean 2.5 years) who had isolated VSD were examined.

[Interventional radiology in congenital and acquired cardiovascular diseases].

The paper outlines the present-day achievements in interventional radiology in cardiovascular diseases: balloon valvuloplasty in cardiac diseases (isolated pulmonary arterial stenosis, aortic and mitral stenosis), balloon vasodilatation (peripheral pulmonary arterial stenosis, aortic coarctation), embolization of the vessels and pathological communications, atrioseptostomy, transcatheter closure of atrial septal defects.

[The cortical interactions in short time intervals during the search for verbal associations].

Cortical connectivity was studied in tasks of generating the use of words in comparison with reading aloud the same words. These tasks were used earlier in PET and high-density ERP recording studies, which described both the functional anatomy and time course of involvement of cortical areas in word processing. We developed a new method for studying the synchrony of EEG spectral components within the short time intervals compatible with the duration of particular cognitive operations.