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Journal of Pediatric Neuropsychology 2021The Feifer Assessment of Writing (FAW) is a comprehensive test of writing that was designed to measure three subtypes of written language disorders. Academic achievement...
The Feifer Assessment of Writing (FAW) is a comprehensive test of writing that was designed to measure three subtypes of written language disorders. Academic achievement tests endeavor to evaluate core neuropsychological and theoretical perspectives that identify students at risk. Written assessments have historically focused more on the ability to write, putting ideas together in a sentence, and being able to do so efficiently. Missing from these evaluations is the impact of working memory and other executive functioning abilities, such as the ability to strategically develop a plan, evaluate, monitor, draft, and revisit the text. This review explores the FAW, and its contribution to the neuropsychological evaluation of writing.
PubMed: 34660179
DOI: 10.1007/s40817-021-00112-y -
Internal Medicine (Tokyo, Japan) Mar 2022
Topics: Agraphia; Cerebral Infarction; Dyslexia; Humans
PubMed: 34433727
DOI: 10.2169/internalmedicine.8112-21 -
American Journal of Hematology Nov 2021
Topics: Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Agraphia; Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological; Aphasia; Biological Products; Confusion; Humans; Immunotherapy, Adoptive; Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse; Middle Aged; Neurotoxicity Syndromes; Retrospective Studies
PubMed: 34424554
DOI: 10.1002/ajh.26330 -
Neurocase Feb 2022Clinical understanding of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) has been established based on English-speaking population. The lack of linguistic diversity in research...
Clinical understanding of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) has been established based on English-speaking population. The lack of linguistic diversity in research hinders the diagnosis of PPA in non-English speaking patients. This case report describes the tonal and orthographic deficits of a multilingual native Cantonese-speaking woman with nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (nfvPPA) and progressive supranuclear palsy. Our findings suggest that Cantonese-speaking nfvPPA patients exhibit tone production impairments, tone perception deficits at the lexical selection processing, and linguistic dysgraphia errors unique to logographic script writer. These findings suggest that linguistic tailored approaches offer novel and effective tools in identifying non-English speaking PPA individuals.
Topics: Agraphia; Aphasia, Primary Progressive; Female; Humans; Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia; Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive
PubMed: 34404317
DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2021.1925302 -
Cureus Jun 2021Gerstmann syndrome is a neurobehavioral syndrome characterized by four cardinal symptoms: acalculia, agraphia, finger-toe agnosia, and dysgraphia. The syndrome is caused...
Gerstmann syndrome is a neurobehavioral syndrome characterized by four cardinal symptoms: acalculia, agraphia, finger-toe agnosia, and dysgraphia. The syndrome is caused primarily by lesions at the confluence of parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, but also can involve the middle frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere. Documented inciting lesions include stroke, tumor, hemorrhage, arteriovenous malformations, and seizures. A meningeal solitary fibrous tumor (SFT)/hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a diagnostic challenge due to its resemblance to more common brain tumors like meningioma, with histopathology being the definitive diagnostic test. A 37-year-old male presented to our tertiary center with blurred vision, "not being himself," and "acting funny" for three weeks. On exam, he was found to have a right inferior quadrantanopia, grade II papilledema and demonstrated all four symptoms of Gerstmann syndrome - inability to perform simple calculations (acalculia), or identify his fingers (finger agnosia), could not distinguish his left side from the right (left-right disorientation), nor write out his name (agraphia). Brain imaging showed an extra-axial, highly vascularized 7.6-cm mass compressing the left parietal lobe. He underwent a complete resection of the mass. Postoperatively, he had gradual improvement with complete resolution of agraphia, acalculia, finger agnosia, and left-right disorientation within a week status post-resection. Tumor pathology indicated hemangiopericytoma/solitary fibrous tumor. This case enunciates the enigmatic tetrad of Gerstmann syndrome. Though classically described as a sequela of stroke, the mass effect of the tumor on the parietal lobe may produce the symptoms, which can resolve following resection.
PubMed: 34327089
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.15863 -
Frontiers in Pediatrics 2021Pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) is a condition defined by sudden onset of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and/or severe eating restrictions, along...
Pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) is a condition defined by sudden onset of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and/or severe eating restrictions, along with at least two other cognitive, behavioral, or neurological symptoms. Its pathogenesis is unknown but it seems triggered by infections, metabolic disturbances, and other inflammatory reactions. PANS represents a neurodevelopmental problem and infant feeding can play a role. Breast milk is the ideal food for infants and influences children's brain, cognitive, and socio-emotional development. We enrolled 52 children diagnosed with PANS. We interviewed their parents in order to investigate perinatal history, infant feeding, neurologic development, and confounding factors like socio-economic status and region of origin. We subgrouped PANS patients into three subsets: those who only received human milk (HMO), those who only received infant formula, and those who received mixed feeding. The cohort is composed of 78.9% males, with a median age of 11 years (range 7-17). We found some neurodevelopmental problems (13.5%): walking disorders, ASD, ADHD, oppositional attitude, and delayed psychomotor development. We found scholar performance deficits (25%), including language problems like dysgraphia, dyslexia, and dyscalculia. The achievement of some milestones in the development of the infant is affected in 73.1% of cases. Breastfeeding is not homogeneously practiced in Italy because of social, economic, and cultural phenomena. The richest and the poorest families (100%) in the sample choose breastfeeding, probably with a different approach and for different reasons (awareness or need). In the group of PANS patients fed with HMO, compared to the rest of the patients, we registered fewer cases of growth problems (0 vs. 12.9%; = 0.14), school performance problems or the need for school support (19.1% vs. 29%; = 0.42), and a delay in the age of babbling/speaking (range 4-20 vs. 7-36 months; = 0.066). This is the first study that investigates the role of breastfeeding in the development of PANS. Promoting breastfeeding is important in the general population and also in PANS patients because it has an important social and global health impact, also during adult life. Further studies with a bigger population are needed to investigate the mechanisms underlying PANS and the role that breastfeeding may play in their short- and long-term neurodevelopment.
PubMed: 34307255
DOI: 10.3389/fped.2021.682108 -
Case Reports in Neurological Medicine 2021Linguistic impairment following cerebellar lesions is characterized by a marked cerebellocerebral diaschisis with decreased perfusion in the left cerebral hemisphere.
BACKGROUND
Linguistic impairment following cerebellar lesions is characterized by a marked cerebellocerebral diaschisis with decreased perfusion in the left cerebral hemisphere.
CASE
We report on a 60-year-old right-handed French chef who presented with linguistic deficits following a right cerebellar infarction. Neurolinguistic examinations in the acute phase showed impaired graphomotor planning, especially for kanji (Japanese morphograms). Despite the absence of any structural damage to the supratentorial brain regions, a quantitative I-IMP SPECT study revealed a relative hypoperfusion, mainly around the left posterior middle temporal gyrus, considered to be a crossed cerebellar-cerebral diaschisis. We performed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and observed that a picture card task could increase blood perfusion in the affected area. This task was as follows: once he saw a picture card depicting a dish, the patient had to list the ingredients that make up the dish. For example, he had to name vegetables, meat, and spices upon seeing a "curry" picture card. We added this task to his daily speech-hearing therapy regimen. In the chronic phase, we confirmed symptom amelioration in linguistic performance-paralleled reduction in the level of hypoperfusion on SPECT study. . This case is the first report of an fNIRS approach used to evaluate evidence-based prospective speech-hearing tasks by observing blood flow to the hypoperfused area of the cerebral cortex surface.
PubMed: 34258088
DOI: 10.1155/2021/6612541 -
JMIR Serious Games May 2021Specific learning difficulties (SpLD) include several disorders such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia, and the children with these SpLD receive special...
BACKGROUND
Specific learning difficulties (SpLD) include several disorders such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia, and the children with these SpLD receive special education. However, the studies and the educational material so far focus mainly on one specific disorder.
OBJECTIVE
This study's primary goal is to develop comprehensive training material for different types of SpLD, with five serious games addressing different aspects of the SpLD. The second focus is measuring the impact of adaptive difficulty level adjustment in the children's and their educators' usability and technology acceptance perception. Receiving feedback from the children and their educators, and refining the games according to their suggestions have also been essential in this two-phase study.
METHODS
A total of 10 SpLD educators and 23 children with different types of SpLD tested the prototypes of the five serious games (ie, Word game, Memory game, Category game, Space game, and Math game), gave detailed feedback, answered the System Usability Scale and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaires, and applied think-aloud protocols during game play.
RESULTS
The games' standard and adaptive versions were analyzed in terms of average playtime and the number of false answers. Detailed analyses of the interviews, with word clouds and player performances, were also provided. The TAM questionnaires' average and mean values and box plots of each data acquisition session for the children and the educators were also reported via System Usability Scale and TAM questionnaires. The TAM results of the educators had an average of 8.41 (SD 0.87) out of 10 in the first interview and an average of 8.71 (SD 0.64) out of 10 in the second interview. The children had an average of 9.07 (SD 0.56) out of 10 in the first interview.
CONCLUSIONS
Both the educators and the children with SpLD enjoyed playing the games, gave positive feedback, and suggested new ways for improvement. The results showed that these games provide thorough training material for different types of SpLD with personalized and tailored difficulty systems. The final version of the proposed games will become a part of the special education centers' supplementary curriculum and training materials, making new enhancements and improvements possible in the future.
PubMed: 34057415
DOI: 10.2196/25997 -
Frontiers in Neurology 2021Micrographia, one element of the dysgraphia of Parkinson's disease (PD), may be classified according to the presence or absence of a decremental pattern. The...
Micrographia, one element of the dysgraphia of Parkinson's disease (PD), may be classified according to the presence or absence of a decremental pattern. The decremental form, progressive micrographia, is an expression of the sequence effect seen generally in bradykinesia. Its responsiveness to levodopa has not been evaluated kinematically. Aim of this study is to investigate the difference in levodopa response for progressive and non-progressive micrographia. Twenty-four PD patients and 24 age-matched repeatedly wrote the letter e on a computerized digital tablet. PD patients performed the task two times, in a defined off state and again after levodopa. Scripts were classified as progressive micrographia (PD) or non-progressive micrographia (PD) depending on whether a 10% decrement was seen between the first and final characters of a line of lettering. While levodopa produced a similar response on the MDS-UPDRS motor scale for the two groups, the effect on the two types of micrographia was different. While writing speed improved significantly in both groups after levodopa, the responses were over twofold greater for PD Moreover, the decremental features of PD-in size, speed, and pen-pressure-were largely unaltered by a levodopa dose. Progressive micrographia is less responsive to levodopa. Our findings agree with research showing that the sequence effect of bradykinesia is relatively resistant to medication. Yet we did not find a weaker overall levodopa motor benefit. Caution is needed in the interpretation of such micrographia measurements for estimating drug responses.
PubMed: 34046005
DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.665112 -
Life (Basel, Switzerland) Apr 2021The learning of writing skills involves the re-engagement of previously established independent procedures. Indeed, the writing deficit an adult may acquire after left...
The learning of writing skills involves the re-engagement of previously established independent procedures. Indeed, the writing deficit an adult may acquire after left hemispheric brain injury is caused by either an impairment to the lexical route, which processes words as a whole, to the sublexical procedure based on phoneme-to-grapheme conversion rules, or to both procedures. To date, several approaches have been proposed for writing disorders, among which, interventions aimed at restoring the sub-lexical procedure were successful in cases of severe agraphia. In a randomized double-blind crossover design, fourteen chronic Italian post-stroke aphasics underwent dual transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) (20 min, 2 mA) with anodal and cathodal current simultaneously placed over the left and right temporo-parietal cortex, respectively. Two different conditions were considered: (1) real, and (2) sham, while performing a writing task. Each experimental condition was performed for ten workdays over two weeks. After real stimulation, a greater amelioration in writing with respect to the sham was found. Relevantly, these effects generalized to different language tasks not directly treated. This evidence suggests, for the first time, that dual tDCS associated with training is efficacious for severe agraphia. Our results confirm the critical role of the temporo-parietal cortex in writing skills.
PubMed: 33919714
DOI: 10.3390/life11040343