ABSTRACT
Resumen La exploración neurológica (EN) es la herramienta clínica más importante con que se cuenta en medicina para la detección y diagnóstico de las enfermedades del sistema nervioso. Como en muchas áreas de la medicina, la integración de los datos clínicos obtenidos mediante la EN con los conocimientos neuroanatómicos y neurofisiológicos resulta de vital importancia para la correcta interpretación de la EN. Para el estudiante de medicina, con frecuencia la EN, y en general las materias relacionadas con las neurociencias, son conceptualizadas como muy extensas, difíciles y áridas, por lo que resulta importante realizar de manera sencilla la enseñanza de las distintas disciplinas neurocientíficas al estudiante de medicina y al médico en general. En este sentido, el objetivo del presente artículo es proponer un esquema para la realización de una exploración neurológica básica (ENB) que le permita al médico de primer contacto identificar eficazmente posibles alteraciones neurológicas (sobre todo las más frecuentes o graves), para así poder brindar un tratamiento inicial adecuado o establecer criterios de referencia oportuna a otro nivel de atención.
Abstract The neurological examination (NE) is the most important clinical tool in medicine for the detection and diagnosis of nervous system diseases. In several medical areas, the integration of clinical data with neuroanatomical and neurophysiological knowledge is of vital importance for the correct utilization and interpretation of NE. Frequently for the medical students, the NE and other subjects related to neuroscience are conceptualized as lengthy, difficult and boring; so it is important to teach these subjects to the medical students and general practitioners in a simple and comprehensive manner. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to propose a scheme for performing a basic neurological examination (BNE) that will allow the primary care physician to readily identify possible neurological disorders (especially the most frequent or severe), in order to provide adequate initial treatment or establish opportune reference criteria to another level of medical assistance.
ABSTRACT
The assessment of learning and memory in animal models has been widely employed in scientific research for a long time. Among these models, those representing diseases with primary processes of affected memory - such as amnesia, dementia, brain aging, etc. - studies dealing with the toxic effects of specific drugs, and other exploring neurodevelopment, trauma, epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disorders, are often called on to employ these tools. There is a diversity of experimental methods assessing animal learning and memory skills. Overall, mazes are the devices mostly used today to test memory in rodents; there are several types of them, but their real usefulness, advantages and applications remain to be fully established and depend on the particular variant selected by the experimenter. The aims of the present article are first, to briefly review the accumulated knowledge in regard to spatial memory tasks; second, to bring the reader information on the different types of rodent mazes available to test spatial memory; and third, to elucidate the usefulness and limitations of each of these devices.
