[The "Tortoni effect" in prosopagnosia].

Proposapnosia is a type of visual agnosia characterized by the inability to recognize people's faces. There are basically two variants, apperceptive and associative. The "Tortoni effect" is a phenomenon described by Bekinschtein et al a few years ago in waiters from Buenos Aires, who used this tool to remember the orders of each member of a table.

[Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease cognitive symptoms].

This chapter will focus in the currently treatments for Alzheimer Disease. The meeting points in the proposed pathogenesis of the disease are the cholinergic and the cascade amyloid hypothesis based mainly in postmortem brain changes: 1- Pathological based on greater density of neuritic plaques and the characteristic presence of neurofibrillary tangles associated with neuronal loss, synaptic alterations and evidence for chronic inflammatory reactions, 2) Biochemical based on major depletion of cortical cholinergic innervation, dramatic loss in levels of biochemically determined choline acetyltransferase, accumulation of beta-amyloid peptide, oxidation, glutamatergic excitotoxicity and activation of the apoptotic cascade. The currently available therapies based on the hypothesized pathophysiology of AD are: Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine) and the NMDA receptor inhibitor Memantine.

[Social cognition and theory of mind assessment in non-demented patients with isolated cerebellar degeneration].

Aim: To investigate whether the cerebellum could participate in social cognition (SC).

Method: General neuropsychological tests, executive tests (EF), social cognition tests, which assess the ability to infer other peoples mental states, and the Beck Depression Inventory were given to 10 non-demented patients with isolated cerebellar degenerative disease, and to 10 healthy controls matched for sex, age, and years of education. ANOVA and correlation coefficients were employed for the statistical analysis.

[Comparison study of executive functions in Parkinson's disease and degenerative cerebellar disease's patients].

Objective: To compare executive functions (EF) in non-demented mild to moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) (Hoehn and Yahr < or =3) and pure degenerative cerebellar disease (CD) in order to evaluate the relative contribution and differential role of basal ganglia and cerebellum in those functions.

Method: 14 patients with PD and 14 patients with CD matched by sex, education, disease's duration and MMSE were selected. A standardized neuropsychological battery and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were administered.

[Behavioral-cognitive disorders due to chronic exposure to industrial and environmental toxic substances].

Unlabelled: A review of neurotoxics is made, given the low tendency to investigate for chronic exposure to environmental and industrial potential central nervous system toxic substances (heavy metals, insecticides, organic solvents and carbon monoxide) in the history of a patient consulting for behavioral - cognitive complains, and considering the potential overturn of the disease if a correct diagnosis and early treatment is made.

Objective: to determine the onset of the cognitive - behavioral features, presentation pattern, diagnosis and treatment of such neurotoxics (NT).

Methodology: systematized search in Cochrane and Medline reviews, Embase and Lilacs.

[Cadasil: a case with molecular diagnosis].

CADASIL disease (Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy) was described in 1991 by Tourmier-Lasserve. Two years later the same authors described its association with chromosome 19; nonetheless, the mutations in gene Notch3 were not described until 1996. Clinical findings depend on the age at onset.