Verbal and non verbal learning ability of parkinson patients before and after a unilateral ventrolateral thalamotomy

105 visual t r a n s f e r in the cat (Muers and Sperry, 1953; Peck, Crewther and Hamilton, 1979) perhaps a r e f l e c t i o n of the paucity of AC c e l l s in visual areas and the need to a c t i v a t e intrahemispheric interneuronal c i r c u i t s capable of carrying visual information to the AC c e l l s of o r i g i n . THE EFFECTS OF LESIONS IN THE CORTICAL FACE AREA, SUPPLEMENTARYMOTOR CORTEX AND ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX ON VOCALIZATION IN THE MONKEY JURGENS, U. AND KIRZINGER, A. M a x - P l a n c k - l n s t i t u t e of Psychiatry, MUnchen, Germany Lesioning experiments in the s q u i r r e l monkey show that the c o r t i c a l face area, supplementary motor area and a n t e r i o r cingulate cortex can be destroyed without changing the acoustic s t r u c t u r e of monkey c e l l s . Lesions in the c o r t i cal face area and a n t e r i o r cingulate cortex also are without e f f e c t on the v o c a l i z a t i o n rate. Supplementary motor cortex lesions d r a s t i c a l l y reduce the rate of long-distance contact c a l l s but not that of agonistic c a l l s . I t is concluded ( i ) t h a t the c o r t i c a l face area is only involved in the control of learned vocal utterances (such as human speech and song) but not in the production of g e n e t i c a l l y preprogrammed utterances (such as monkey c a l l s and human pain groans); ( i i ) that the a n t e r i o r cingulate cortex is necessary f o r the v o l i t i o n a l i n i t i a t i o n of v o c a l i z a t i o n but not f o r the i n i t i a t i o n of c a l l s in an emotional s i t u a t i o n , and ( i i i ) that the supplementary motor area is involved in the i n i t i a t i o n of v o c a l i z a t i o n s which are not triggered d i r e c t l y by ecternal events. VERBAL AND NON VERBAL LEARNING ABILITY OF PARKINSON PATIENTS BEFORE AND AFTER A UNILATERAL VENTROLATERALTHALAMOTOMY KOCHER, U. AND PERRET, E. Neuropsychology U n i t , Dept. of Neurology, U n i v e r s i t y Hospital, ZUrich, Switzerland Twenty patients undergoing a l e f t v e n t r o l a t e r a l (LVL) and 17 patients undergoing a r i g h t v e n t r o l a t e r a l (RVL) thalamotomy f o r Parkinsonims were compared to 20 control patients in tests of verbal and nonverbal ( f i g u r a l ) learning. The Parkinson patients were tested p r i o r t o , one week and again 15 weeks a f t e r the operation. The patients had to learn word pairs in the verbal test and pairs of nonsense f i g u r e s (Vanderplas f i g u r e s ) in the nonverbal t e s t (Part A). The number of pairs to be learned in each modality had been assessed previously f o r each p a t i e n t i n d i v i d u a l l y , and in each test session such as to reach a c r i t e r i o n of 100% w i t h i n l i m i t e d time. Following a d i s t r a c t i o n period of 30 minutes, the word and f i g u r e pairs had to be re-learned (Part B). Thereafter, the patients were asked to learn the word and f i g u r e pairs with the f i r s t element of each pair as in Part A, but associated with a new second element (Part C). A f t e r another 45 minutes the i n i t i a l set of word and f i g u r e pairs had to be relearned anew (Part D). No r e l a t i o n was found between learning performance and a t t e n t i o n span, speech comprehension and visual perception. Before operation the performance of LVL, RVL and control groups were well matched in a l l tests. One week a f t e r the thalamotomy the performance of the LVL group in Parts A, B, C and D of the verbal t e s t was s i g n i f i c a n t l y impaired, while no changes were found in the nonverbal t e s t .

106 The performance of the RVL group decreased s i g n i f i c a n t l y only in Parts B and C of the nonverbal t e s t , and no changes were found in the verbal test whatsoever. Fifteen weeks a f t e r the operation the learning performances had returned to t h e i r preoperative level in both LVL and RVL groups. The r e s u l t s indicate that u n i l a t e r a l thalamic lesions cause materials p e c i f i c , but only t r a n s i e n t impairments of learning a b i l i t i e s in man. REWARD DEPENDENT EFFECTS OF D, L-AMPHETAMINE IN OPERANT LICKING: WATER VERSUS BRAIN STIMULATION REWARD KUNDU, S.N.*, GREENSHAW, A . J . * * AND BURES, J . * * * * V i s i t i n g s c i e n t i s t from the Dept. of Zoology, U n i v e r s i t y of Kalyani, Kalyani 741 235, West Bengal, India * * V i s i t i n g s c i e n t i s t from the Dept. of Psychology, U n i v e r s i t y College, C a r d i f f , Great B r i t a i n * * * I n s t i t u t e of Physiology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague The general v a l i d i t y of the catecholamine theories of reward cannot be e a s i l y reconciled with experiments showing that amphetamine (Amph) i n h i b i t s feeding but enhances i n t r a c r a n i a l s e l f s t i m u l a t i o n (ICSS). The p o s s i b i l i t y that the contrasting Amph effects r e f l e c t differences between motor behaviours (feeding or drinking vs. bar pressing) rather than between motivations was examined in ten adult hooded rats with b i p o l a r electrodes in the medial forebrain bundle. The animals were trained to l i c k at a photoelectric lickometer to get e i t h e r water (40 u l ) or ICSS (40-100 uA, 50 Hz, 400 msec.). The same FR8 schedule was employed with both types of reward. I.P. i n j e c t i o n of D,LAmph ( 0 . I , 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg/kg) before the d a i l y 30 minutes session e l i c i ted a dose related increase of IcSS rate reaching 200% of the control ICSS rate at 1.0 mg/kg. The drug sessions were separated by 2-3 control sessions. Computer analysis of the l i c k i n g patterns showed that d e l i v e r y of ICSS was f o l l o w ed by 2-5 sec. long post-reinforcement pause which was shortened or abolished by Amph. The e f f e c t i v e Amph. dosage ( I . 0 mg/kg) did not increase but rather reduced water-rewarded l i c k i n g . I t is argued that the d i f f e r e n t i a l effects of Amph on water-and ICSS-rewarded l i c k i n g express not only the r e l a t i v e cont r i b u t i o n of noradrenergic neurons to the two conditions but that Amph f a c i l i t a t i o n of ICSS can also be due to the reduction of the post-reinforcement i n h i b i t i o n and/or to better compensation of the stimulation-induced motor disruption. A COMPARISONOF THE ROLES OF PARIETAL AND FRONTAL CORTEX IN SPATIAL VISION IN THE MONKEY LATTO, R. U n i v e r s i t y of Liverpool, England Both i n f e r i o r parietal cortex and the f r o n t a l e y e - f i e l d s have been shown by lesion and e l e c t r o p h y s i o l o g i c a l studies to be involved in spatial ~ision. In order to d i f f e r e n t i a t e the functions of these two areas, two groups of three monkeys, with b i l a t e r a l lesions of e i t h e r the f r o n t a l e y e - f i e l d or the i n f e r i o r p a r i e t a l gyrus, were compared with each other and with a control group of three normal monkeys on a series of p r e - o p e r a t i v e l y learned visual d i s c r i m i n a t i o n s . Neither lesion group was impaired on brightness or pattern d i s c r i m i n a t i o n s or on d i c r i m i n a t i o n s r e q u i r i n g a simple judgement such as picking out the l e f t of two i d e n t i c a l s t i m u l i . The parietal group alone was impaired on a spatial t e s t requiring the selection of the centre of a row