Written language preservation in glioma patients undergoing awake surgery: The value of tailored intra-operative assessment.

Written language is increasingly important, as contemporary society strongly relies on text-based communication. Nonetheless, in neurosurgical practice, language preservation has classically focused on spoken language. The current study aimed to evaluate the potential role of intra-operative assessments in the preservation of written language skills in glioma patients undergoing awake surgery.

Quantitative appraisal of the Amyloid Imaging Taskforce appropriate use criteria for amyloid-PET.

Introduction: We test the hypothesis that amyloid-positron emission tomography prescriptions, considered appropriate based on the Amyloid Imaging Taskforce (AIT) criteria, lead to greater clinical utility than AIT-inappropriate prescriptions.

Methods: We compared the clinical utility between patients who underwent amyloid-positron emission tomography appropriately or inappropriately and among the subgroups of patients defined by the AIT criteria. Finally, we performed logistic regressions to identify variables associated with clinical utility.

The role of the motor system in action naming in patients with neurodegenerative extrapyramidal syndromes.

Previous studies of patients with brain damage have suggested a close relationship between aphasia and movement disorders. Neurodegenerative extrapyramidal syndromes associated with cognitive impairment provide an interesting model for studying the neural substrates of cognitive and motor symptoms. In this review, we focused on studies investigating language production abilities in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP).

Mapping nouns and finite verbs in left hemisphere tumors: a direct electrical stimulation study.

Neurosurgical mapping studies with nouns and finite verbs are scarce and subcortical data are nonexistent. We used a new task that uses finite verbs in six Italian-speaking patients with gliomas in the left language-dominant hemisphere. Language-relevant positive areas were detected only with nouns in four patients, with both tasks yet in distinct cortical areas in one patient, and only with finite verbs in another patient.

Assessment of the Incremental Diagnostic Value of Florbetapir F 18 Imaging in Patients With Cognitive Impairment: The Incremental Diagnostic Value of Amyloid PET With [18F]-Florbetapir (INDIA-FBP) Study.

Importance: Cerebral amyloidosis is a key abnormality in Alzheimer disease (AD) and can be detected in vivo with positron emission tomography (PET) ligands. Although amyloid PET has clearly demonstrated analytical validity, its clinical utility is debated.

Objective: To evaluate the incremental diagnostic value of amyloid PET with florbetapir F 18 in addition to the routine clinical diagnostic assessment of patients evaluated for cognitive impairment.

Facial feedback and autonomic responsiveness reflect impaired emotional processing in Parkinson's Disease.

Emotional deficits are part of the non-motor features of Parkinson's disease but few attention has been paid to specific aspects such as subjective emotional experience and autonomic responses. This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms of emotional recognition in Parkinson's Disease (PD) using the following levels: explicit evaluation of emotions (Self-Assessment Manikin) and implicit reactivity (Skin Conductance Response; electromyographic measure of facial feedback of the zygomaticus and corrugator muscles). 20 PD Patients and 34 healthy controls were required to observe and evaluate affective pictures during physiological parameters recording.

Neuroimaging Correlates of Frontotemporal Dementia Associated with SQSTM1 Mutations.

Background: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is a progressive dementia characterized by focal atrophy of frontal and/or temporal lobes caused by mutations in the gene coding for sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1), among other genes. Rare SQSTM1 gene mutations have been associated with Paget's disease of bone, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and, more recently, frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine whether a characteristic pattern of grey and white matter loss is associated with SQSTM1 dysfunction.

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of parietal cortex enhances action naming in Corticobasal Syndrome.

Background: Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS) is a neurodegenerative disorder that overlaps both clinically and neuropathologically with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and is characterized by apraxia, alien limb phenomena, cortical sensory loss, cognitive impairment, behavioral changes and aphasia. It has been recently demonstrated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improves naming in healthy subjects and in subjects with language deficits.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the extent to which anodal tDCS over the parietal cortex (PARC) could facilitate naming performance in CBS subjects.

Understanding Emotions in Frontotemporal Dementia: The Explicit and Implicit Emotional Cue Mismatch.

Background: Previous studies have reported significant deficits in emotion recognition among individuals along the frontotemporal dementia (FTD) spectrum. The basis of emotional impairment is still poorly understood and explicit (emotion appraisal) and implicit (autonomic system activity) responses have not been carefully evaluated.

Objective: We investigated explicit evaluation of emotions by testing valence and arousal using self-report measures and we also assessed automatic responses to emotional cues, using autonomic measures (skin conductance response and heart rate).

Time up and go task performance improves after transcranial direct current stimulation in patient affected by Parkinson's disease.

Locomotor disturbances represent one of the major distress in everyday life in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Timed up and go test (TUG) has been advocated a useful and reliable tool for quantifying locomotor performance. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during timed up and go test (TUG) in a group of patients with PD.

Treatment of primary progressive aphasias by transcranial direct current stimulation combined with language training.

Background: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is an untreatable neurodegenerative disorder that disrupts language functions. Previous studies have demonstrated transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may improve language symptoms in patients with post stroke aphasia or neurodegenerative diseases.

Objective: The present study investigated whether the application of anodal tDCS (AtDCS) to the scalp overlying the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which may increase cortical excitability, in combination with individualized speech therapy would improve naming accuracy in the agrammatic variant of PPA (avPPA).

VEGF haplotypes are associated with increased risk to progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome.

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal syndrome (CBS) are in the spectrum of tauopathies and recognized to have a strong genetic background. It has been widely reported that MAPT tau haplotype H1 is a genetic risk factor in both conditions, but no other genetic determinants have so far been proposed. Recently, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) haplotypes were reported to confer risk to frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Preliminary evidence that VEGF genetic variability confers susceptibility to frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) recognizes a strong genetic background, with 30-50% of cases with a positive family history. Despite several efforts to identify monogenic causes of the disease, no clear-cut genetic risk factors for sporadic FTLD are yet known. Recently, increasing evidence points to a pivotal role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the neurodegenerative process, suggesting functions not confined to its originally described vascular effects.

Functional correlates of Apolipoprotein E genotype in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.

Background: It has been recently demonstrated that in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD) memory deficits at presentation are commoner than previously thought. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype, the major genetic risk factor in sporadic late-onset Alzheimer Disease (AD), modulates cerebral perfusion in late middle-age cognitively normal subjects. ApoE epsilon4 homozygous have reduced glucose metabolism in the same regions involved in AD.