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Surprising dissociations in two Greek agrammatic speakers. Evidence from wh-questions and relative clauses
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Abstracts of SAN Meeting / Neuroscience Letters 500S (2011) e1–e54
professors to formally teach neurobiology in a School of Education (at the National University of La Plata, Argentina), underscoring, almost a century ago, the inevitability of bridging the humanities to biological science. Second, the philosophical denominator, evident throughout his work, reached a zenith in the later years of his research career. He published some twenty papers in the neurophilosophy domain; their key aspect is the adoption of Kantian a priori conditions of internal intuition as a basis for a theory on cognitive development (‘psychogenesis’) and cortical localization. In 1941 Jakob suggested that human experience is constructed upon space, time, and causality through a process that is expressed in terms of structural changes in the cerebral cortex. Within such a framework, gnoses, praxes and symbolies, processes localizable to their constitutive elements, arise and secure the individual’s orientation and active intervention in the environment. Jakob held that such functions occur both in the phylogenetic and ontogenetic scales. His theorizing further comprised topics such as the philosophical meaning of the human brain (1945), the origin of consciousness (1945), and common and diverge aspects between biology and philosophy (1946). doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.195 Surprising dissociations in two Greek agrammatic speakers. Evidence from wh-questions and relative clauses Michaela Nerantzini 1 , Spyridoula Varlokosta 1 , Despina Potagas 3 , Ioannis Evdokimidis 3 , Papadopoulou 2 , Costantin 4 5 Dimitris Kaselimis , Alan Beretta 1 Department of Linguistics, University of Athens, Greece 2 Department of Linguistics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 3 Neurology Department, University of Athens, Greece 4 University of Athens, Greece 5 Department of Linguistics and Physiology, Michigan State University, USA Cross-linguistic studies have shown that agrammatic speakers tend to have severe difficulties interpreting both wh-questions and relative clauses (RCs) when they involve object-extraction, but not when they involve subject-extraction. In the present behavioral study we present the case of two agrammatic speakers with different brain lesions and opposite performance on the structures under investigation. Participants: Two male Greek-speaking agrammatic speakers and a control group of 10 non-impaired participants were tested. V.A. had suffered an ischemic CVA including Broca’s area, the insula, inferior and superior parietal lobules, and much of the temporal lobe. E.T. had suffered a more circumscribed ischemic CVA involving only the parietal cortex. Materials: We conducted two comprehension tasks, one with wh-questions and one with RCs. The wh-question task consisted of 30 non-referential and 30 referential subject/object questions. Similarly, the RCs task consisted of 30 right branching and 30 center-embedded subject/object clauses. Procedure: Participants were presented with a picture while they heard a sentence orally presented to them and were asked to point to the correct agent of the action. Results: V.A.’s performance was in line with studies which attest worse comprehension of object-extraction compared to subjectextraction. However, E.T. showed the exact opposite pattern. His performance on object-extraction was significantly better than on subject-extraction. Discussion: This may be the first report of a subject (E.T.) who performs well on such a wide range of sentences involving (long-distance) object-extraction and badly on sentences involving (short-distance) subject-extraction. Processing stories are typi-
cally premised on the assumption that object-extraction is more costly. E.T. thus presents a fascinating counterexample. Clearly, it is possible for subject-extraction to break down independently of object-extraction, which suggests that short- and long-distance movement might be processed separately. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.196 The effect of six months walking exercise and vitamin E supplementation on event-related potentials in older people Özgür Özdemir 1 , Özgür Nalbant 1 , Naciye Füsun Toraman 2 , Hülya Aydın Güngör 3 , Yas¸ar Gül Özkaya 1 1 Akdeniz University, School of Physical Education and Sports, Antalya, Turkey 2 Antalya State Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey 3 Akdeniz University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Antalya, Turkey The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible role of walking exercise and vitamin E supplementation on event-related potentials in older people. Fifty-seven adults aged 60–85 years were randomly assigned to one of four groups: sedentary control (C), vitamin E (V), exercise training (E) and vitamin E under training (EV). V and EV groups were received vitamin E at a dose of 900 IU/day P.O. for 6 months. Trained groups were subjected to walking exercise involved 3 sessions per week for 6 months. Walking duration was gradually increased during 8 weeks, and stayed constant until the end of training period. Participants were begun walking at % 70 heart rate reserve for 20 min/day at the first two weeks, and walking duration was increased by 5 min/day of each week until subjects were reached a level of 50 min/day by week 8. Latency and amplitude measurements of N1, P2 and N2 components of event-related potentials were performed on all study groups both before and after training. Data were analyzed using repeated measure’s of ANOVA and expressed as ±SD, statistical significance was considered at the p < 0.05 level. P2 and N2 latency and amplitude results were found unaltered among all groups. Although significant improvement in N1 latency and amplitude measurements was found both in Fz and Cz region in E group, unaltered values were obtained in V and EV groups. In conclusion, vitamin E supplementation has no additive effect to that of walking exercise training on N1 component of event-related potentials. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.197 Applying brain network activation tool on working memory ERPs in a scopolamine model of Alzheimer’s disease Revital Shani-Hershkovitch 1 , Amit Reches 1 , Dani Kerem 1 , Noga Pinchuk 1 , Naama Levy-Cooperman 2 , Myroslava K. Romach 2 , Edward M. Sellers 2 , Amir B. Geva 1,3 1 ElMindA Ltd., Herzliya, Israel 2 Kendle Early Phase, Toronto, Canada 3 Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel Background: An objective and sensitive neuro-pathophysiological biomarker in conjunction with a drug model of AD in healthy subjects would be a desirable application. It would set the scene for a screening tool capable of assessing the risk of developing memory deficits, still at a pre-symptomatic stage, as well as selecting the most suitable subjects for evaluating new therapeutic entities for AD. Objectives: 1. Use the novel Brain Network Activation (BNA) analysis to define electrical activity networks associated with scopolamine (SC)-induced memory impairment. 2. Look for similarities of the individual network in the un-drugged state to the
Abstracts of SAN Meeting / Neuroscience Letters 500S (2011) e1–e54
professors to formally teach neurobiology in a School of Education (at the National University of La Plata, Argentina), underscoring, almost a century ago, the inevitability of bridging the humanities to biological science. Second, the philosophical denominator, evident throughout his work, reached a zenith in the later years of his research career. He published some twenty papers in the neurophilosophy domain; their key aspect is the adoption of Kantian a priori conditions of internal intuition as a basis for a theory on cognitive development (‘psychogenesis’) and cortical localization. In 1941 Jakob suggested that human experience is constructed upon space, time, and causality through a process that is expressed in terms of structural changes in the cerebral cortex. Within such a framework, gnoses, praxes and symbolies, processes localizable to their constitutive elements, arise and secure the individual’s orientation and active intervention in the environment. Jakob held that such functions occur both in the phylogenetic and ontogenetic scales. His theorizing further comprised topics such as the philosophical meaning of the human brain (1945), the origin of consciousness (1945), and common and diverge aspects between biology and philosophy (1946). doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.195 Surprising dissociations in two Greek agrammatic speakers. Evidence from wh-questions and relative clauses Michaela Nerantzini 1 , Spyridoula Varlokosta 1 , Despina Potagas 3 , Ioannis Evdokimidis 3 , Papadopoulou 2 , Costantin 4 5 Dimitris Kaselimis , Alan Beretta 1 Department of Linguistics, University of Athens, Greece 2 Department of Linguistics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 3 Neurology Department, University of Athens, Greece 4 University of Athens, Greece 5 Department of Linguistics and Physiology, Michigan State University, USA Cross-linguistic studies have shown that agrammatic speakers tend to have severe difficulties interpreting both wh-questions and relative clauses (RCs) when they involve object-extraction, but not when they involve subject-extraction. In the present behavioral study we present the case of two agrammatic speakers with different brain lesions and opposite performance on the structures under investigation. Participants: Two male Greek-speaking agrammatic speakers and a control group of 10 non-impaired participants were tested. V.A. had suffered an ischemic CVA including Broca’s area, the insula, inferior and superior parietal lobules, and much of the temporal lobe. E.T. had suffered a more circumscribed ischemic CVA involving only the parietal cortex. Materials: We conducted two comprehension tasks, one with wh-questions and one with RCs. The wh-question task consisted of 30 non-referential and 30 referential subject/object questions. Similarly, the RCs task consisted of 30 right branching and 30 center-embedded subject/object clauses. Procedure: Participants were presented with a picture while they heard a sentence orally presented to them and were asked to point to the correct agent of the action. Results: V.A.’s performance was in line with studies which attest worse comprehension of object-extraction compared to subjectextraction. However, E.T. showed the exact opposite pattern. His performance on object-extraction was significantly better than on subject-extraction. Discussion: This may be the first report of a subject (E.T.) who performs well on such a wide range of sentences involving (long-distance) object-extraction and badly on sentences involving (short-distance) subject-extraction. Processing stories are typi-
cally premised on the assumption that object-extraction is more costly. E.T. thus presents a fascinating counterexample. Clearly, it is possible for subject-extraction to break down independently of object-extraction, which suggests that short- and long-distance movement might be processed separately. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.196 The effect of six months walking exercise and vitamin E supplementation on event-related potentials in older people Özgür Özdemir 1 , Özgür Nalbant 1 , Naciye Füsun Toraman 2 , Hülya Aydın Güngör 3 , Yas¸ar Gül Özkaya 1 1 Akdeniz University, School of Physical Education and Sports, Antalya, Turkey 2 Antalya State Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey 3 Akdeniz University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Antalya, Turkey The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible role of walking exercise and vitamin E supplementation on event-related potentials in older people. Fifty-seven adults aged 60–85 years were randomly assigned to one of four groups: sedentary control (C), vitamin E (V), exercise training (E) and vitamin E under training (EV). V and EV groups were received vitamin E at a dose of 900 IU/day P.O. for 6 months. Trained groups were subjected to walking exercise involved 3 sessions per week for 6 months. Walking duration was gradually increased during 8 weeks, and stayed constant until the end of training period. Participants were begun walking at % 70 heart rate reserve for 20 min/day at the first two weeks, and walking duration was increased by 5 min/day of each week until subjects were reached a level of 50 min/day by week 8. Latency and amplitude measurements of N1, P2 and N2 components of event-related potentials were performed on all study groups both before and after training. Data were analyzed using repeated measure’s of ANOVA and expressed as ±SD, statistical significance was considered at the p < 0.05 level. P2 and N2 latency and amplitude results were found unaltered among all groups. Although significant improvement in N1 latency and amplitude measurements was found both in Fz and Cz region in E group, unaltered values were obtained in V and EV groups. In conclusion, vitamin E supplementation has no additive effect to that of walking exercise training on N1 component of event-related potentials. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.197 Applying brain network activation tool on working memory ERPs in a scopolamine model of Alzheimer’s disease Revital Shani-Hershkovitch 1 , Amit Reches 1 , Dani Kerem 1 , Noga Pinchuk 1 , Naama Levy-Cooperman 2 , Myroslava K. Romach 2 , Edward M. Sellers 2 , Amir B. Geva 1,3 1 ElMindA Ltd., Herzliya, Israel 2 Kendle Early Phase, Toronto, Canada 3 Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel Background: An objective and sensitive neuro-pathophysiological biomarker in conjunction with a drug model of AD in healthy subjects would be a desirable application. It would set the scene for a screening tool capable of assessing the risk of developing memory deficits, still at a pre-symptomatic stage, as well as selecting the most suitable subjects for evaluating new therapeutic entities for AD. Objectives: 1. Use the novel Brain Network Activation (BNA) analysis to define electrical activity networks associated with scopolamine (SC)-induced memory impairment. 2. Look for similarities of the individual network in the un-drugged state to the