Errors in the Spontaneous Language of Survivors of Pediatric Cerebellar Tumors.

Pediatric cerebellar tumor survivors may present with spontaneous language impairments following treatment, but the nature of these impairments is still largely unclear. A recent study by Svaldi et al. (Cerebellum.

Effects of Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Bilingual Logopenic Primary Progressive Aphasia.

Background: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a language-based dementia, causing progressive decline of language functions. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can augment effects of speech-and language therapy (SLT). However, this has not been investigated in bilingual patients with PPA.

Spoken verb learning in children with language disorder.

The current study examined spoken verb learning in elementary school children with language disorder (LD). We aimed to replicate verb learning deficits reported in younger children with LD and to examine whether verb instrumentality, a semantic factor reflecting whether an action requires an instrument (e.g.

Language outcomes in children who underwent surgery for the removal of a posterior fossa tumor: A systematic review.

Background: Children who underwent posterior fossa tumor removal may have spoken or written language impairments. The present systematic review synthesized the literature regarding the language outcomes in this population. Benefits of this work were the identification of shortcomings in the literature and a starting point toward formulating guidelines for postoperative language assessment.

The 10-Word Auditory Verbal Learning Test and Vocabulary Performance in 4- and 5-Year-Old Children.

Background: Understanding the different factors that determine vocabulary development in young children is essential for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of language disorders in children. Language development is closely related to other cognitive processes such as auditory verbal learning and memory. This research focuses on the development of a novel auditory verbal learning test (AVLT) for 4- and 5-year-old children within the Dutch population.

Characterising the Long-Term Language Impairments of Children Following Cerebellar Tumour Surgery by Extracting Psycholinguistic Properties from Spontaneous Language.

Following cerebellar tumour surgery, children may suffer impairments of spontaneous language. Yet, the language processing deficits underlying these impairments are poorly understood. This study is the first to try to identify these deficits for four levels of language processing in cerebellar tumour survivors.

The noun-verb distinction.

The comparison between nouns and verbs has been a topic of interest for many researchers over the last 50 years. This comparison, and subsequent behavioral and (partly) anatomic dissociation, has allowed researchers to delve into many topics including the behavioral architecture of the language system and its neural correlates, the underlying nature of the linguistic impairment in individuals with different neurologic disorders, the assessment of language treatment protocols, and the proposal of new protocols aimed to protect the language system of individuals undergoing surgery for brain tumors and epilepsy. Specific to the left temporal lobe, classic accounts have shown its relevance for the processing of nouns and less for the processing of verbs.

Developmental language disorder in sequential bilinguals: Characterising word properties in spontaneous speech.

The current study sought to investigate whether word properties can facilitate the identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) in sequential bilinguals by analyzing properties in nouns and verbs in L2 spontaneous speech as potential DLD markers. Measures of semantic (imageability, concreteness), lexical (frequency, age of acquisition) and phonological (phonological neighbourhood, word length) properties were computed for nouns and verbs produced by 15 sequential bilinguals (5;7) with DLD and 15 age-matched controls with diverse L1 backgrounds. Linear mixed modelling revealed a significant interaction of group and word category on phonological neighbourhood values but no differences across imageability, concreteness, frequency, age of acquisition, and word length measures in spontaneous speech.

Treating lexical retrieval using letter fluency and tDCS in primary progressive aphasia: a single-case study.

Background: In early stages, individuals with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) report language symptoms while scoring within norm in formal language tests. Early intervention is important due to the progressive nature of the disease.

Method: We report a single case study of an individual with logopenic variant PPA (lvPPA).

What Drives Task Performance During Animal Fluency in People With Alzheimer's Disease?

Background: Animal fluency is a widely used task to assess people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurological disorders. The mechanisms that drive performance in this task are argued to rely on language and executive functions. However, there is little information regarding what specific aspects of these cognitive processes drive performance on this task.

Cognitive and language performance predicts effects of spelling intervention and tDCS in Primary Progressive Aphasia.

Predictors of treatment effects allow individual tailoring of treatment characteristics, thereby saving resources and optimizing outcomes. Electrical stimulation coupled with language intervention has shown promising results in improving language performance in individuals with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). The current study aimed to identify language and cognitive variables associated with response to therapy consisting of language intervention combined with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).

Brain volumes as predictors of tDCS effects in primary progressive aphasia.

The current study aims to determine the brain areas critical for response to anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in PPA. Anodal tDCS and sham were administered over the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), combined with written naming/spelling therapy. Thirty people with PPA were included in this study, and assessed immediately, 2 weeks, and 2 months post-therapy.

The Role of Word Properties in Performance on Fluency Tasks in People with Primary Progressive Aphasia.

People with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) present language difficulties that require lengthy assessments and follow-ups. Despite individual differences, people with PPA are often classified into three variants that present some distinctive language difficulties. We analyzed the data of 6 fluency tasks (i.

Does Tracheal Lidocaine Instillation Reduce Intracranial Pressure Changes After Tracheal Suctioning in Severe Head Trauma? A Prospective, Randomized Crossover Study.

Objectives: Tracheal suctioning is a routine procedure in mechanically ventilated children, however, in severe head-injured patients it can result in potential deleterious increase in intracranial pressure. We aimed to assess the effect of tracheal lidocaine administration on intracranial pressure during tracheal suctioning.

Design: Prospective randomized controlled crossover study.

Language processing from the perspective of electrical stimulation mapping.

Electrical Stimulation (ES) is a neurostimulation technique that is used to localize language functions in the brain of people with intractable epilepsy and/or brain tumors. We reviewed 25 ES articles published between 1984 and 2018 and interpreted them from a cognitive neuropsychological perspective. Our aim was to highlight ES as a tool to further our understanding of cognitive models of language.

Imageability ratings across languages.

Imageability is a psycholinguistic variable that indicates how well a word gives rise to a mental image or sensory experience. Imageability ratings are used extensively in psycholinguistic, neuropsychological, and aphasiological studies. However, little formal knowledge exists about whether and how these ratings are associated between and within languages.

The Eating Assessment Tool-10 Predicts Aspiration in Adults with Stable Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Adults with COPD frequently present with dysphagia, which often leads to clinical complications and hospital admissions. This study investigates the ability of the Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) to predict aspiration during objective dysphagia evaluation in adults with stable COPD. Thirty adults (20 male, 10 female; mean age = 69.

Survey on current cognitive practices within the European Low-Grade Glioma Network: towards a European assessment protocol.

Background: The European Low-Grade Glioma network indicated a need to better understand common practices regarding the managing of diffuse low-grade gliomas. This area has experienced great advances in recent years.

Method: A general survey on the managing of diffuse low-grade gliomas was answered by 21 centres in 11 European countries.

Improving Production of Treated and Untreated Verbs in Aphasia: A Meta-Analysis.

Demographic and clinical predictors of aphasia recovery have been identified in the literature. However, little attention has been devoted to identifying and distinguishing predictors of improvement for different outcomes, e.g.

Can tDCS enhance item-specific effects and generalization after linguistically motivated aphasia therapy for verbs?

Background: Aphasia therapy focusing on abstract properties of language promotes both item-specific effects and generalization to untreated materials. Neuromodulation with transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to enhance item-specific improvement, but its potential to enhance generalization has not been systematically investigated. Here, we test the efficacy of ACTION (a linguistically motivated protocol) and tDCS in producing item-specific and generalized improvement in aphasia.

Use of fentanyl and midazolam in mechanically ventilated children--Does the method of infusion matter?

Background And Objective: Benzodiazepines and opioids are commonly used in pediatric intensive care unit. However, there is no previous study assessing the use of administering these drugs combined (single solution) or separately. We sought to evaluate the impact of these 2 different methods of providing sedation/analgesia in pediatric intensive care unit.

A minimal standardization setting for language mapping tests: an Italian example.

During awake surgery, picture-naming tests are administered to identify brain structures related to language function (language mapping), and to avoid iatrogenic damage. Before and after surgery, naming tests and other neuropsychological procedures aim at charting naming abilities, and at detecting which items the subject can respond to correctly. To achieve this goal, sufficiently large samples of normed and standardized stimuli must be available for preoperative and postoperative testing, and to prepare intraoperative tasks, the latter only including items named flawlessly preoperatively.

Iatrogenic pneumothorax in mechanically ventilated children: Incidence, risk factors and other outcomes.

Objectives: Determine prevalence, risk factors and outcomes of iatrogenic pneumothoraces (IPs) in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Methods: Patients with IP (cases) and patients without IP (controls) were retrieved from a 5-year prospective cohort of 645 PICU patients who received mechanical ventilation (MV).

Results: Twenty cases and eighty controls were assessed.

tDCS in post-stroke aphasia: the role of stimulation parameters, behavioral treatment and patient characteristics.

Neurostimulation techniques have been recently adopted in aphasia rehabilitation. In several studies transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was used to enhance treatment effects. The methodology adopted in different studies is characterized by a large variability, as concerns stimulation parameters (e.

How the modified Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score can identify treatment failure and avoid overusing antibiotics in ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Aim: Although the modified Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS) has been used to guide treatment decisions in adults with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), paediatric studies are lacking. We assessed a modified CPIS tool to define VAP resolution and identify treatment failure at an early stage.

Methods: We identified 70 mechanically ventilated children with VAP according to the Center for Disease Control criteria.