Temporal processing skills in people who stutter / Habilidades do processamento temporal em pessoas que gaguejam

ABSTRACT Purpose: to investigate the auditory skills of temporal resolution and ordering in people who stutter. Methods: an observational, cross-sectional, analytical, and comparative research between study and control groups conducted at a speech-language-hearing teaching clinic of an academic institution, comprising people who stutter (who attended a public outreach program) and volunteers without communicative disorders, for 13 months. The procedures used were auditory perception anamnesis, acoustic immittance, and pure-tone and speech audiometry to discharge hearing changes. The participants who met the eligibility criteria had their resolution and ordering skills assessed with the Gaps-in-Noise, Random Gap Detection, Pitch Pattern Sequence, and Duration Pattern Sequence tests and the data obtained were entered into a spreadsheet for descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Results: the study group presented changes in temporal resolution and ordering. A statistically significant difference was also verified comparing the assessment findings of the study and control groups, in all the assessment tests. Conclusion: temporal resolution and ordering changes were observed in the people presented with stuttering, regardless of sex or chronological age.

RESUMO Objetivo: investigar as habilidades auditivas de resolução e ordenação temporal em pessoas que gaguejam. Métodos: estudo observacional transversal analítico e comparativo entre o grupo estudo e o controle. Realizado numa Clínica-Escola de Fonoaudiologia de uma instituição de ensino com pessoas que gaguejam atendidos em projeto de extensão universitária, bem como por voluntários sem distúrbio de comunicação, no período de 13 meses. Os procedimentos realizados foram anamnese de percepção auditiva, imitanciometria, audiometria tonal e vocal para descartar alteração na audição. Para os participantes que atenderam aos critérios de elegibilidade, realizou-se a avaliação das habilidades de resolução e ordenação com os seguintes testes: Gaps in Noise; Random Gap Detection Test; Pitch Pattern Sequence; e Duration Pattern Sequence. Após a realização dos testes descritos acima, os dados obtidos foram alocados em planilha digital para análise estatística descritiva e inferencial. Resultados: o grupo estudo apresentou alteração nas habilidades de resolução e ordenação temporal. Verificou-se, também, a diferença estatisticamente significante nos achados avaliativos dos grupos estudo e controle, quando comparados, para todos os testes realizados nas avaliações. Conclusão: observou-se alteração das habilidades de resolução e ordenação temporal nos indivíduos com gagueira, independentemente do gênero ou idade cronológica.

Diferencias en procesamiento cerebral visual temprano en niños con trastorno del déficit de atención / Differences in early visual cerebral processing in children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorders with predominance of no attention

Para evaluar los procesos atencionales a estímulos visuales que no requieren repuesta motora, se llevó a cabo un estudio con potenciales evocados a 17 niños con trastornos del déficit de atención/ hiperactividad (TDAH-I) con predominio inatento y a 15 controles de edades entre 7 y 11 años. Se analizó la latencia y localización de fuentes de los potenciales evocados visuales tempranos P100 y N100 durante la realización de una tarea oddball visual (20% rayas horizontales y 80% verticales) en que las rayas verticales no exigían respuesta motora. Los resultados indican que los niños con TDAH-I procesan la información visual que no requiere respuesta motora con un mayor aumento de la actividad cerebral y mediante la vía temporal ventral mientras que el grupo control lo hace mediante la vía parietal dorsal. Este proceso neurobiológico de procesamiento de la información visual vía temporal ventral de los niños con TDAH-I podría deberse a alteraciones en los procesos emocionales que influyen directamente en el reconocimiento visual o a un déficit en el control de los procesos atencionales por parte de la vía parietal dorsal.

To evaluate attentional processes to visual stimuli that do not require motor response, a study with evoked potentials was carried out on 17 children with attention deficit disorder predominantly inattentive (ADDH-I) and 15 controls between the ages of 7 and 11 years. The latency and localization of sources of the early visual evoked potentials P100 and N100 were analyzed during the performance of a visual oddball task (20% horizontal and 80% vertical lines) where the vertical lines did not require motor response. The results indicate that ADDH-I group process visual information that does not require motor response with a greater increase in brain activity and through the ventral temporal pathway, while the control group does so by means of the dorsal parietal stream. This neurobiological process of visual information processing by ventral temporal pathway of ADDH-I group could be due to alterations in emotional processes that directly influence visual recognition or as consequence of deficit in the control of attentional processes by the dorsal parietal pathway.

Aportes sobre el correlato neuroanatómico de la personalidad / Contributions on neuroanatomical correlate of personality

Concept of personality is refers to stable and relevant attributes of a person, that explain consistent behavior patterns. Many researchers have different brain areas involved in controlling personality. Several highlighted the role of the orbitofrontal cortex in the ability to reverse the association between stimulus and reinforcement, others associated it later with the prediction ofsensory events subsequent results. The medial frontal cortex has been involved with functions as the control of actions, monitoring results as punishments and rewards, personal perception of stimuli and social cognition. Others include the lateral prefrontal cortex in complex issues of valuation. Finally, the anterior temporal region is considered to be related with facial recognition and social knowledge. In this paper we review evidence available in today’s literature about the neuroanatomical substrate ofpersonality, and its application to the study of two disorders: psychopathy and borderline personality disorder. Understanding this substrate could mean a contribution for treatment.

La personalidad corresponde a aquellos atributos estables y relevantes de una persona, que explican patrones consistentes de comportamiento. Muchos investigadores han implicado distintas áreas cerebrales en el control de la personalidad. Varios destacaron el papel de la corteza orbitofrontal en la capacidad de revertir la asociación estímulo refuerzo y posteriormente en la predicción de resultados posteriores a eventos sensoriales. Se ha involucrado a la corteza medial frontal en funciones como el control de las acciones, el monitoreo de resultados como castigos y recompensas, la percepción personal de estímulos y la cognición social. Otros incluyen a la corteza prefrontal lateral en aspectos complejos de la valoración. Por último, se considera a la región temporal anterior en el reconocimiento facial y también en el conocimiento social. En la presente revisión se expone parte de la evidencia disponible en la actualidad en la literatura, acerca del sustrato neuroanatómico de la personalidad y su aplicación al estudio de dos patologías: la psicopatía y el trastorno limítrofe. La comprensión de este sustrato puede significar un aporte para el tratamiento.

Estructuras cerebrales implicadas en el procesamiento temporal / Brain structures involved in temporal processing

El tiempo siempre ha sido una constante regulatoria del comportamiento humano. Durante las últimas dos décadas, la neurociencia ha buscado las bases biológicas al igual que la localización específica de estructuras o sistemas que el cerebro humano utilice en la ejecución, interpretación o retención de procesamientos temporales. La presente revisión reúne gran parte de los estudios actuales enfocados en la ubicación de las estructuras que involucran lapsos de retención, cronometraje o procesamiento temporal, reportando evidencia respecto a diversas estructuras involucradas, como lo son los ganglios basales; en la activación del putamen respecto a conteos dentro de respuestas motoras; Al cerebelo, en relación a intervalos de duración relativamente breves de tiempo, que van desde 300, 400, 600 y 800 ms, hasta 1-2 o 12-24 segundos; En la relación entre amígdala y corteza insular, en la ejecución de cronometraje controlado; En corteza frontal/pre-frontal, asociado a períodos breves (menores a 1 s) o al menor rendimiento de procesos atencionales o de memoria, propios del funcionamiento ejecutivo; y corteza parietal, asociada a la comparación consiente de las duraciones en rango de segundos (intervalos de 1 s) en relación a señales auditivas y visuales, así como en la codificación espacial y el procesamiento de cantidades numéricas. La localización de estas estructuras es la base para el desarrollo de modelos de estudio e integración de sistemas cada vez más precisos respecto a cómo el cerebro humano interpreta el tiempo...

Time has always been a constant regulatory human behavior. During the past two decades, neuroscience has sought the biological basis as the specific location of structures or systems that use the human brain in the execution, interpretation or retention of time processing. The present revision gathers much of the current research focused on the location of structures that involve retention periods, timing or temporal processing, reporting evidence regarding various structures involved, such as the basal ganglia, in the putamen regarding activation counts within motor responses; The cerebellum, in relation to a relatively short duration intervals of time, ranging from 300, 400, 600 and 800 ms, 1-2 or 12-24 seconds; In the relationship between amygdale and insular cortex, in performing timing control; In frontal/prefrontal cortex, associated with brief periods (less than 1-s) or lower yield of attention or memory processing, typical of executive functioning; And parietal cortex associated consents comparison of durations in seconds range (1-s intervals) in relation to auditory and visual cues, as well as spatial encoding and processing numerical quantities. The location of these structures is the basis for the development of study models and integration systems increasingly accurate as to how the human brain interprets the time...

Cómo se representa la información fonológica en el cerebro: una explicación en términos de las redes relacionales / Representation of phonological information in the brain: a n explanation in terms of relational networks

Gracias a la afasiología y a la neuroanatomía sabemos que hay dos sistemas fonológicos: la percepción fonológica (en el área de Wernicke) y la producción fonológica (en el área de Broca). Por otro lado, gracias a la lingüística sabemos que el sistema léxico-gramatical conecta los significados con la fonología. A partir de todo esto se espera mostrar que las redes relacionales permiten representar cómo se conectan los dos sistemas fonológicos, el léxico-gramatical y el semántico.

Thanks to aphasiology and neuroanatomy, it is known that there are two phonological systems: phonological perception (in Wernicke´s area) and phonological production (in Broca’s area). On the other hand, thanks to Linguistics, we know that the lexicogrammatical system connects meanings with phonology. On this basis, this report aims at showing the way in which relational networks allow us to represent how the two phonological systems, lexico-grammatical and semantics, are connected.

Longitudinal brain volumetric changes during one year in non-elderly healthy adults: a voxel-based morphometry study

Previous cross-sectional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of healthy aging in young adults have indicated the presence of significant inverse correlations between age and gray matter volumes, although not homogeneously across all brain regions. However, such cross-sectional studies have important limitations and there is a scarcity of detailed longitudinal MRI studies with repeated measures obtained in the same individuals in order to investigate regional gray matter changes during short periods of time in non-elderly healthy adults. In the present study, 52 healthy young adults aged 18 to 50 years (27 males and 25 females) were followed with repeated MRI acquisitions over approximately 15 months. Gray matter volumes were compared between the two times using voxel-based morphometry, with the prediction that volume changes would be detectable in the frontal lobe, temporal neocortex and hippocampus. Voxel-wise analyses showed significant (P < 0.05, family-wise error corrected) relative volume reductions of gray matter in two small foci located in the right orbitofrontal cortex and left hippocampus. Separate comparisons for males and females showed bilateral gray matter relative reductions in the orbitofrontal cortex over time only in males. We conclude that, in non-elderly healthy adults, subtle gray matter volume alterations are detectable after short periods of time. This underscores the dynamic nature of gray matter changes in the brain during adult life, with regional volume reductions being detectable in brain regions that are relevant to cognitive and emotional processes.

Correlações entre leitura, consciência fonológica e processamento temporal auditivo / Correlations between reading, phonological awareness and auditory temporal processing

TEMA: influência do processamento auditivo no aprendizado da leitura. OBJETIVO: analisar a correlação entre leitura, consciência fonológica e processamento temporal auditivo em crianças brasileiras com dislexia. MÉTODO: foram avaliadas sessenta crianças de nove a doze anos, sendo trinta e três pertencentes ao grupo com dislexia e trinta e três ao grupo controle. Os testes aplicados envolveram habilidades de leitura, consciência fonológica e processamento auditivo temporal. RESULTADOS: ambos os grupos apresentaram diferenças estatisticamente significantes entre os desempenhos nos testes de leitura, consciência fonológica e processamento auditivo temporal, sendo que o grupo de crianças com dislexia apresentou desempenho estatisticamente pior em todos os testes aplicados. Foi encontrada correlação apenas entre os desempenhos nos testes de leitura e consciência fonológica. CONCLUSÃO: Apesar de o grupo de crianças com dislexia ter apresentado pobre desempenho nos testes de processamento auditivo temporal, não é possível afirmar que este esteja relacionado ao pobre desempenho em tarefas envolvendo leitura ou consciência fonológica

BACKGROUND: auditory temporal processing and reading. AIM: to analyse the potential correlations between reading acquisition, phonological awareness, and auditory temporal processing in Brazilian children with dyslexia. METHOD: this study evaluated sixty children, nine to twelve years of age, divided into two groups: a control group of twenty seven children without dyslexia and a study group of thirty three children with dyslexia. The children in both groups were submitted to tests designed to assess reading skills, phonological awareness, and auditory temporal processing. RESULTS: in the results of all three tests, significant differences were found between the dyslexic children and those in the control group, with poorer results for the dyslexic group. However, for both groups, correlations were found only between the performance on the reading test and the performance on the phonological awareness test. CONCLUSION: dyslexic children demonstrated poorer results in all tests when compared to their controls. However, there was no definitive evidence that their poor performance on the auditory temporal processing tests was directly related to their phonological awareness skills, or even to their reading skills

Brain areas activated after ejaculation in healthy young human subjects.

Brain mechanisms for the refractory period that characteristically follows ejaculation in animals and human are poorly understood. The possibility of active inhibition of brain areas being responsible for the post-ejaculatory inhibitory state has not been ruled out. Using Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we have mapped brain areas in healthy young volunteers immediately after ejaculation. Functional imaging of the brain for 30 minutes beginning after three minutes of ejaculation induced by masturbation showed spatio-temporal activation in amygdala, temporal lobes and septal areas. The septal areas were observed to be active for a shorter duration than the amygdala and the temporal lobe. Thus the temporal sequence of involvement of the above neural structures may contribute to temporary inhibition of sexual arousal/penile erection during the post-ejaculatory refractory period in humans.

Changes of ongoing activity in Cebus monkey perirhinal cortex correlate with behavioral performance

A Cebus apella monkey weighing 4 kg was trained in a saccadic eye movement task and while the animal performed the task we recorded the extracellular activity of perirhinal cortical neurons. Although the task was very simple and maintained at a constant level of difficulty, we observed considerable changes in the performance of the monkey within each experimental session. The behavioral states responsible for such variation may be related to arousal, motivation or attention of the animal while engaged in the task. In approximately 20 percent (16/82) of the units recorded, long-term direct or inverse correlations could be demonstrated between the monkey's behavioral state and the cells' ongoing activity (independent of the visual stimulation or of the specific behavior along a trial). The perirhinal cortex and other medial temporal structures have long been associated with normal memory function. The data presented here were interpreted in terms of recent reports focusing on the subcortical afferents to temporal lobe structures and their possible role in controlling arousal, motivation, or attention.

Estudios funcionales de la corteza auditiva humana, de la memoria auditiva y alucinaciones auditivas / Functional studies of human auditory cortex, auditory memory and auditory hallucinations

Objetivos. 1. Determinar que áreas de la corteza cerebral son activadas al estimular el oído izquierdo con tonos puros, y que tipo de estimulación ocurre (eg. excitatoria o inhibitoria) en estas diferentes áreas. 2. Usar esta información como una etapa inicial para desarrollar una bases de datos funcional para estudios futuros. 3. Tratar de determinar si existe un sustrato biológico para el proceso de recordar percepciones auditivas previas, y si fuera posible, sugerir un locus para la memoria auditiva. Método. Se hicieron evaluaciones de SPECT: 1-2) Usando estimulación auditiva con tonos puros en 4 voluntarias con audición normal. 3) En una paciente con sordera profunda bilateral, la cual tenía percepciones auditivas de experiencias musicales previas; mientras estaba teniendo la sensación de escuchar una melodía conocida. Resultados. Tanto en la paciente con alucinaciones auditivas como en las voluntarias estimuladas con tonos puros, hubo una diferencia estadísticamente significativa en perfusión del área 39 de Brodmann; más intensa en el lado derecho (derecho a izquierdo p <0.05). Con menor intensidad hubo también activación en el área adyacente 40 e intensa activación en las áreas ejecutivas de la corteza frontal números 6, 8, 9, y 10 de Brodmann. También hubo activación del área 7 de Brodmann; área de asociación audio-visual; más marcada en el lado derecho de la paciente y de los controles normales estimulados. En las estructuras subcorticales también hubo una marcada activación en la paciente con alucinaciones en ambos núcleos lentiformes, el tálamo y los núcleos caudados, también más intensos en el hemisferio derecho, 5, 4.7 y 4.2 desviaciones Standard (S.D.) sobre la media a derecha y 5, 3.3 y 3 S.D. sobre la media en el izquierdo. Hallazgos similares se encontraron en los controles normales. Conclusiones. Después de estimular auditivamente con tonos puros en el oído izquierdo en voluntarias normales, se observa activación del área 39 de Brodmann, más...

The anatomy of language revisited

The language areas have been classically viewed as a posterior, perceptual Wernicke's region connected with an anterior, motor Broca's area via a tract of long fibers denominated the arcuate fasciculus. Recent connectional studies in the monkey indicate that there may be few direct connections between the regions strictly corresponding to Broca's or Wernicke's areas, and that inferior parietal areas may serve as a link between them. The proposed connectional pattern of the language regions fits the network of parietotemporal-prefrontal connections that participate in working memory, a type of memory used in immediate cognitive processing. Supporting this concept, brain activation studies in the human during linguistic working memory tasks have determined a close relation between the supramarginal gyrus (parietal area 40) and Broca's area. We suggest that language processing is closely related to working memory networks, and that the language regions in fact originated in evolution from a working memory network for linguistic utterances

Surgical approaches to tumors and epileptogenic zones close to Wernicke's area

A ressecçäo de processos expansivos em áreas relacionadas à fala pode causar morbidade severa de linguagem. A realizaçäo de procedimentos cirúrgicos sob anestesia local e mapeamento intra-operatório das áreas relacionadas à linguagem pode ser empregada para minimizar estes déficits. Seis pacientes com tumores da área de Wernicke foram mapeados (2 astrocitomas de baixo grau, 1 ganglioma, 1 xantoastrocitoma, 1 metástase, 1 glioblastoma). Sua apresentaçäo clínica incluía epilepsia (n=4) e disfasia de compressäo (n=2). Após infiltraçäo dos planos superficiais com anestésico local e craniotomia, procedia-se à estimulaçäo com eletrodo unipolar do córtex temporal amplamente exposto, com testagem simultânea de linguagem, principalmente compreensäo e fala sequencial. Após o mapeamento, elegia-se a melhor via de acesso de modo a evitar a área mapeada. Em 5 casos a ressecçäo foi completa e em 1 parcial (glioblastoma). Em 1 caso houve piora transitória (10 dias) de déficit pré-existente de compreensäo e expressäo (glioblastoma). Em 3 casos as áreas da fala haviam sido deslocadas: posteriormente (n=2) ou em direçäo suprasilviana (n=1). Procedimentos cirúrgicos com anestesia local säo seguros e podem evitar distúrbios pós-operatórios de linguagem em pacientes com tumores próximos à área de Wernicke

Remarkable similarities between the temporal organization of neocortical electrographic sleep patterns of rats and humans

Electrocorticographic activity was automatically recorded in albino rats for 72 consecutive h and analyzed by procedures suitable to detect 24-h rhythms. Beta (alert wakefulness), theta (somnolence), delta (slow wave sleep) and sigma 1 (superficial synchronized sleep) activities showed a robust circadian rhythmic distribution. The acrophases (maxima of the adjusted cosine curve) occurred at 23:39, 07:59, 08:37 and 13:25 h, respectively. EMG atonia and extreme hypotonia (less than 10% of mean EMG level) episodes showed a 24-h rhythm peaking at 14:18 h. The temporal sequence within the circadian rest period, i.e., somnolence, slow, wave sleep, superficial synchronized sleep and paradoxical sleep, is very similar to that known to occur during the nocturnal sleep of humans

Organizacion funcional de la corteza cerebral / Functional organization of cerebral cortex

Los avances mas recientes en el entendimiento de la organizacion de la corteza cerebral permiten evaluar clinicamente el estado funcional de zonas especificas del cerebro, sin necesidad de recurrir a costosos procedimientos paraclinicos, muchos de ellos cruentos ademas. En este articulo en forma necesariamente breve y como una ayuda clinica para los estudiantes de medicina, lo mismo que para los medicos no especialistas en neurociencias, se destacan aspectos practicos sobre la organizacion cerebral.