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Cognitive neuropsychology in clinical practice
344
BOOK REVIEWS
E E G features are not emphasized but are included on a level that would provide an adequate introduction for the beginning neurology resident. Although most major epileptic conditions are included, the benign and severe myoclonic epilepsies receive essentially no coverage. Individual chapters on stimulus-sensitive epilepsies, recent advances in genetics, and epidemiology would have strengthened the book. The real strength of this book lies in its second half, the coverage of treatment. This might be expected given that this is the area of interest of the book's co-editors. These chapters will stand as a ready "how-to" reference for all physicians who treat children with epilepsy. Of u n c o m m o n interest are the discussions of generic formulations by Dodson, pediatric dosage forms (especially rectal administration) by Garnett and Cloyd, monotherapy and the limitations of routine drug level monitoring by Pellock and Pippenger and Bourgeois, an expanded list of fetal anticonvulsant syndromes by Yerby, and an account of current pediatric trials of experimental anticonvulsant medications by Cereghino. A more detailed review of valproate hepatotoxicity would have been useful, considering how much this subject is of concern to pediatric neurologists. T h e final chapter, by Goldring and Bernardo, differs from the rest of the book in not being a general review. However, it provides an interesting insight into how pediatric epilepsy surgery has evolved at one major center.
Jane F. Donat
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH (USA)
Cognitive neuropsychology in clinical practice. - D.I. Margolin (Ed.) (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992, 560 p., Price US $51.00)
Standard medical teaching about disorders of cognition portrays them about as well as the fable of the stork portrays the actual process of childbirth. Those clinicians and medical researchers who want the true~ albeit shocking, story about the processes underlying cognition and their disorders should read this book. Its basic framework is that overt cognitive functions - such as naming, reading, visual perception, and memory - are the product of multiple underlying processes. Brain pathology can disrupt the otherwise seamless operation of these processes, revealing what they are and how they interact. By far the bulk of the book is devoted to analyses of specific impairments, using this general approach. Reflecting the field, some of these analyses are more successful and informative than others. Perhaps the best developed are those dealing with various aspects of language (naming problems, reading problems, spelling), calculation impairments (acalculia), language memory (verbal short-term memory deficit), disorders of visual processing, motor disorders, and disorders of long-term memory. The diagnosis of dementia is also considered, in the context of discussing broad-based approaches to neuropsychologic assessment. Attentional search and attentional disorders and a perspective on schizophrenia are reviewed in two separate chapters. There is a chapter on cognitive dysfunction in eating disorders, which also discusses a great many other topics (e.g., memory and the psychopharmacology of basic neurotransmitter systems). A n o t h e r chapter offers an overview of neuroimaging methods, including P E T scanning. Rehabilitation is given the more prominent role it so deserves. Several authors consider the rehabilitation of disorders of reading, writing, and related language disorders, while there is a separate chapter detailing considerations in the neuropsychologic rehabilitation of musicians and other artists. Neuroanatomic information is not given very often, but this partly reflects the lack of firm neuroanatomic associations in many of the areas being considered.
The volume provides more aid for the clinician than is usual in such works. Besides the practical advice and commentary of the editor, several chapters provide lists of stimuli, and some authors are making their specialized batteries available. However, for the most part, these batteries and approaches arc too focused to be immediately useful in the complex situations found in clinical practice. Nonetheless, those clinicians and medical scientists who deal with cognitive impairments will find this book a very rewarding introduction to the modern understanding of some of these functions and their disorders. Anyone who wishes to do research that touches on cognition had better read this book, or one very much like it. Barry Gordon
Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287-7222 (USA)
Cerebral small artery disease. Advances in Neurology, Vol. 62. P.M. Pullicino, L.R. Caplan and M. Hnmmel (Eds.) (Raven Press, New York, 1993, 254 p., Price US $98.00) This volume is the result of an international effort made by researchers and clinicians from The Netherlands (Maastricht, Rotterdam), France (Grenoble) and the U.S.A. (Buffalo, Boston). The preface proclaims that " . . . neurologists and physicians dealing with stroke patients will also find this book very useful in correlating clinical lacunar syndromes with the anatomical site and vascular territory of the infarct" and, furthermore, that "neuroscientists working in the field of vascular disease will find the book a useful, in-depth, clinically oriented review of small artery disease." These statements should have been written by books reviewers (rather than by the editors themselves) but this reviewer can give his full e n d o r s e m e n t to those lines. This is indeed a very good book: a long needed assessment of pathology and clinical syndromes caused by small artery disease, too often overshadowed by the catastrophic events caused by large artery strokes. The editors and contributors present a critical view of the term "lacunar." Historical perspectives are not left undone. Diseases leading to small artery disease are discussed in great detail. Clinical lacunar syndromes are beautifully demonstrated with an impressive bibliography. Modern aspects pertain mainly to the advances of neuroimaging techniques and the recent rapid growth of the therapeutic armamentarium. E. Niedermeyer
Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (U8A)
Epilepsy and sudden death. - C.M. Lathers and P.L. Schraeder (Eds.) (Marcel Dekker, New York, 1990, 534 p., Price US $165.00) Sudden death is a specter that looms over the person with epilepsy. It is an often unspoken fear of patients and their families. Sudden death is estimated to account for approximately 15% of all deaths in persons with epilepsy. While the problem has been long recognized, interest became refocused on the problem in 1983 when a symposium on sudden unexplained death was held at the American Epilepsy Society-Epilepsy International Congress in Washington, DC. The editors of this volume, Lathers and Schraeder, had collaborated in the 1980s on development of an animal model to investigate cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in association with epileptiform discharges. Their continuing interest in this topic has resulted in a volume that compiles the basic scientific data and attempts to
BOOK REVIEWS
E E G features are not emphasized but are included on a level that would provide an adequate introduction for the beginning neurology resident. Although most major epileptic conditions are included, the benign and severe myoclonic epilepsies receive essentially no coverage. Individual chapters on stimulus-sensitive epilepsies, recent advances in genetics, and epidemiology would have strengthened the book. The real strength of this book lies in its second half, the coverage of treatment. This might be expected given that this is the area of interest of the book's co-editors. These chapters will stand as a ready "how-to" reference for all physicians who treat children with epilepsy. Of u n c o m m o n interest are the discussions of generic formulations by Dodson, pediatric dosage forms (especially rectal administration) by Garnett and Cloyd, monotherapy and the limitations of routine drug level monitoring by Pellock and Pippenger and Bourgeois, an expanded list of fetal anticonvulsant syndromes by Yerby, and an account of current pediatric trials of experimental anticonvulsant medications by Cereghino. A more detailed review of valproate hepatotoxicity would have been useful, considering how much this subject is of concern to pediatric neurologists. T h e final chapter, by Goldring and Bernardo, differs from the rest of the book in not being a general review. However, it provides an interesting insight into how pediatric epilepsy surgery has evolved at one major center.
Jane F. Donat
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH (USA)
Cognitive neuropsychology in clinical practice. - D.I. Margolin (Ed.) (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992, 560 p., Price US $51.00)
Standard medical teaching about disorders of cognition portrays them about as well as the fable of the stork portrays the actual process of childbirth. Those clinicians and medical researchers who want the true~ albeit shocking, story about the processes underlying cognition and their disorders should read this book. Its basic framework is that overt cognitive functions - such as naming, reading, visual perception, and memory - are the product of multiple underlying processes. Brain pathology can disrupt the otherwise seamless operation of these processes, revealing what they are and how they interact. By far the bulk of the book is devoted to analyses of specific impairments, using this general approach. Reflecting the field, some of these analyses are more successful and informative than others. Perhaps the best developed are those dealing with various aspects of language (naming problems, reading problems, spelling), calculation impairments (acalculia), language memory (verbal short-term memory deficit), disorders of visual processing, motor disorders, and disorders of long-term memory. The diagnosis of dementia is also considered, in the context of discussing broad-based approaches to neuropsychologic assessment. Attentional search and attentional disorders and a perspective on schizophrenia are reviewed in two separate chapters. There is a chapter on cognitive dysfunction in eating disorders, which also discusses a great many other topics (e.g., memory and the psychopharmacology of basic neurotransmitter systems). A n o t h e r chapter offers an overview of neuroimaging methods, including P E T scanning. Rehabilitation is given the more prominent role it so deserves. Several authors consider the rehabilitation of disorders of reading, writing, and related language disorders, while there is a separate chapter detailing considerations in the neuropsychologic rehabilitation of musicians and other artists. Neuroanatomic information is not given very often, but this partly reflects the lack of firm neuroanatomic associations in many of the areas being considered.
The volume provides more aid for the clinician than is usual in such works. Besides the practical advice and commentary of the editor, several chapters provide lists of stimuli, and some authors are making their specialized batteries available. However, for the most part, these batteries and approaches arc too focused to be immediately useful in the complex situations found in clinical practice. Nonetheless, those clinicians and medical scientists who deal with cognitive impairments will find this book a very rewarding introduction to the modern understanding of some of these functions and their disorders. Anyone who wishes to do research that touches on cognition had better read this book, or one very much like it. Barry Gordon
Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287-7222 (USA)
Cerebral small artery disease. Advances in Neurology, Vol. 62. P.M. Pullicino, L.R. Caplan and M. Hnmmel (Eds.) (Raven Press, New York, 1993, 254 p., Price US $98.00) This volume is the result of an international effort made by researchers and clinicians from The Netherlands (Maastricht, Rotterdam), France (Grenoble) and the U.S.A. (Buffalo, Boston). The preface proclaims that " . . . neurologists and physicians dealing with stroke patients will also find this book very useful in correlating clinical lacunar syndromes with the anatomical site and vascular territory of the infarct" and, furthermore, that "neuroscientists working in the field of vascular disease will find the book a useful, in-depth, clinically oriented review of small artery disease." These statements should have been written by books reviewers (rather than by the editors themselves) but this reviewer can give his full e n d o r s e m e n t to those lines. This is indeed a very good book: a long needed assessment of pathology and clinical syndromes caused by small artery disease, too often overshadowed by the catastrophic events caused by large artery strokes. The editors and contributors present a critical view of the term "lacunar." Historical perspectives are not left undone. Diseases leading to small artery disease are discussed in great detail. Clinical lacunar syndromes are beautifully demonstrated with an impressive bibliography. Modern aspects pertain mainly to the advances of neuroimaging techniques and the recent rapid growth of the therapeutic armamentarium. E. Niedermeyer
Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (U8A)
Epilepsy and sudden death. - C.M. Lathers and P.L. Schraeder (Eds.) (Marcel Dekker, New York, 1990, 534 p., Price US $165.00) Sudden death is a specter that looms over the person with epilepsy. It is an often unspoken fear of patients and their families. Sudden death is estimated to account for approximately 15% of all deaths in persons with epilepsy. While the problem has been long recognized, interest became refocused on the problem in 1983 when a symposium on sudden unexplained death was held at the American Epilepsy Society-Epilepsy International Congress in Washington, DC. The editors of this volume, Lathers and Schraeder, had collaborated in the 1980s on development of an animal model to investigate cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in association with epileptiform discharges. Their continuing interest in this topic has resulted in a volume that compiles the basic scientific data and attempts to