- Email: [email protected]
Verbal and non-verbal learning performance of patients with Parkinson's diseae before and after unilateral thalamic lesions
EBBS ABSqRACTS
499
Verbal and non-verbal learning performance of patients with Parkinson's diseae before and after unilateral thalamic lesions E. PERRET AND E. EGGENBERGER -Neuropsychologisches Laboratortum, Neurochirurgische Klintk, CH-8006 Zurich (Switzerland)
The verbal and non-verbal learning performance of 28 patients with Parkinson's disease was measured before and two months after a unilateral surgical lesion in the thalamus. After preoperative testing, 15 patients underwent a left-sided thalamlc lesion (LTL), the other 13 patients underwent a right-sided thalamlc lesion (RTL). Sixteen patients hospitalized for a herniated disc operation served as controls. In the verbal learning task 10 pairs of words, in the non-verbal task, 7 pairs of nonsense figures had to be learnt to a criterion of 100~o. One hour and a half later, all pairs of words and figures had to be learnt again. Before operation the learning performance was the same in both L T L and RTE groups, and significantly inferior to the performance of the control group. Two months after operation the performance of the L T L group was significantly worse in the verbal test and slightly worse in the non-verbal test. The performance of the R T L group improved in the verbal part, and decreased only m the non-verbal part. These differences between the L T L and R T L groups in the effects of the surgical lesion are not correlated with secondary factors as age, schooling, durahon of symptoms, test-intelligence or perceptual deficits. It does seem, therefore, that at a subcortical level left-sided lesions are followed by general as well as material-specific (verbal) learning deficits, whereas lesions on the right side only show the materialspecific (non-verbal) detrimental effect on learning.
Hemispheric differences in normal humart subiects: further evidence from study of reaction time to lateralized visual stimuli C. UMILT.~. G. RIZZOLATTI, C. A. MARZI, G ZAMBONI, C. FRANZINI, R. CAMARDA AND G. BERLUCCHI- - Institute oJ Psychology, University of Bologna, and the Institutes
of Physiology of the Universities of Pisa and Parma (Italy) Functional differences between the cerebral hemispheres can be demonstrated m the normal, right-handed human subject by measuring choice reaction times to laterahzed visual stimuh. For example, reaction time to physiognomlcal material is shorter when the stimulus goes to the right hemisphere, and reaction time to alphabetlcal material is shorter when the stimulus goes to the left hemisphere. By using the same technique, we have now shown that the right hemisphere is superior in mediating discriminative reactions to lines oriented with different slopes between the horizontal and the vertical. This Is in good accord with neurological reports showing disturbances in spatial orientation in patients with right-side brain damage. However, discriminative reactions to hnes oriented along the vertical, the horizontal and the two intermediate
499
Verbal and non-verbal learning performance of patients with Parkinson's diseae before and after unilateral thalamic lesions E. PERRET AND E. EGGENBERGER -Neuropsychologisches Laboratortum, Neurochirurgische Klintk, CH-8006 Zurich (Switzerland)
The verbal and non-verbal learning performance of 28 patients with Parkinson's disease was measured before and two months after a unilateral surgical lesion in the thalamus. After preoperative testing, 15 patients underwent a left-sided thalamlc lesion (LTL), the other 13 patients underwent a right-sided thalamlc lesion (RTL). Sixteen patients hospitalized for a herniated disc operation served as controls. In the verbal learning task 10 pairs of words, in the non-verbal task, 7 pairs of nonsense figures had to be learnt to a criterion of 100~o. One hour and a half later, all pairs of words and figures had to be learnt again. Before operation the learning performance was the same in both L T L and RTE groups, and significantly inferior to the performance of the control group. Two months after operation the performance of the L T L group was significantly worse in the verbal test and slightly worse in the non-verbal test. The performance of the R T L group improved in the verbal part, and decreased only m the non-verbal part. These differences between the L T L and R T L groups in the effects of the surgical lesion are not correlated with secondary factors as age, schooling, durahon of symptoms, test-intelligence or perceptual deficits. It does seem, therefore, that at a subcortical level left-sided lesions are followed by general as well as material-specific (verbal) learning deficits, whereas lesions on the right side only show the materialspecific (non-verbal) detrimental effect on learning.
Hemispheric differences in normal humart subiects: further evidence from study of reaction time to lateralized visual stimuli C. UMILT.~. G. RIZZOLATTI, C. A. MARZI, G ZAMBONI, C. FRANZINI, R. CAMARDA AND G. BERLUCCHI- - Institute oJ Psychology, University of Bologna, and the Institutes
of Physiology of the Universities of Pisa and Parma (Italy) Functional differences between the cerebral hemispheres can be demonstrated m the normal, right-handed human subject by measuring choice reaction times to laterahzed visual stimuh. For example, reaction time to physiognomlcal material is shorter when the stimulus goes to the right hemisphere, and reaction time to alphabetlcal material is shorter when the stimulus goes to the left hemisphere. By using the same technique, we have now shown that the right hemisphere is superior in mediating discriminative reactions to lines oriented with different slopes between the horizontal and the vertical. This Is in good accord with neurological reports showing disturbances in spatial orientation in patients with right-side brain damage. However, discriminative reactions to hnes oriented along the vertical, the horizontal and the two intermediate