Music Playing and Interhemispheric Communication: Older Professional Musicians Outperform Age-Matched Non-Musicians in Fingertip Cross-Localization Test.

OBJECTIVE: Numerous investigations have documented that age-related changes in the integrity of the corpus callosum are associated with age-related decline in the interhemispheric transfer of information. Conversely, there is accumulating evidence for more efficient white matter organization of the corpus callosum in individuals with extensive musical training. However, the relationship between making music and accuracy in interhemispheric transfer remains poorly explored. METHODS: To test the hypothesis that musicians show enhanced functional connectivity between the two hemispheres, 65 professional musicians (aged 56-90 years) and 65 age- and sex-matched non-musicians performed the fingertip cross-localization test. In this task, subjects must respond to a tactile stimulus presented to one hand using the ipsilateral (intra-hemispheric test) or contralateral (inter-hemispheric test) hand. Because the transfer of information from one hemisphere to another may imply a loss of accuracy, the value of the difference between the intrahemispheric and interhemispheric tests can be utilized as a reliable measure of the effectiveness of hemispheric interactions. RESULTS: Older professional musicians show significantly greater accuracy in tactile interhemispheric transfer than non-musicians who suffer from age-related decline. CONCLUSIONS: Musicians have more efficient interhemispheric communication than age-matched non-musicians. This finding is in keeping with studies showing that individuals with extensive musical training have a larger corpus callosum. The results are discussed in relation to relevant data suggesting that music positively influences aging brain plasticity.

Psychosomatic Syndromes and Symptom Severity in Chronic Psoriasis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether and the extent to which psychosomatic syndromes and psychopathology are associated to psoriasis severity. METHOD: Consecutive 282 outpatients with chronic psoriasis were assessed for psychopathology (with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview), psychosomatic conditions (with the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research, DCPR), severity of psoriatic symptoms (with the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index, PASI), and illness-related quality of life (with the Dermatology Life Quality Index, DLQI). RESULTS: Psychopathology was diagnosed in 26.6% patients while at least one DCPR syndrome in 67% of them and higher psychosomatic severity (>1 DCPR syndrome) in 29.1%. Higher symptom severity (PASI>20) was significantly more prevalent in patients with greater psychosomatic severity (29.1%) (d=1.25) - particularly, alexithymia (29.4%; d=0.83) - and poorer quality of life (DLQI>10) (d=0.86). Furthermore, after controlling for psychopathology, psychosomatic severity, and alexithymia, together with lower illness-related quality of life, independently predicted severity of symptoms, with large effect size (d=0.78 and d=1.75, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: DCPR clusters can be suggested as a useful tool for identifying psychological distress in psoriasis, significantly linked to both subjective (quality of life) and objective factors (severity of lesions and extension of affected skin areas) of the illness experience.

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry-from theory to clinical practice: an observational study in a general hospital.

BACKGROUND: To investigate significant association between various clinical and extra-clinical factors brought out the activities of Consultation-Liaison Service. METHODS: Data from all psychiatric consultations for patients admitted to the Perugia General Hospital and carried out over a 1-year period (from July the 1st 2009 to June the 30th 2010) were collected by a structured clinical report including: socio-demographic features, features of referrals, features of back-referrals. T-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, χ(2)-test and Fischer's were statistically used. RESULTS: 1098 consultations were performed. The consultations carried out the Emergency Unit were excluded from the study. The type and the reasons for the referrals were discussed such as the ICD-10 diagnosis and the liaison interventions too. Significant associations emerged between gender and: social status and occupation (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 respectively). Clinical sector related with reason for referral (p < 0.01), type of consultation (p < 0.01), liaison investigations (p < 0.01) and long-term treatment plan after hospital discharge (p < 0.01). The ICD-10 psychiatric diagnosis (Schizophrenia, Affective Syndrome and Neurotic-StressSomatoform Syndrome) was associated with social status (p < 0.01), social condition (p < 0.01), consultation type (p < 0.01), advice (p < 0.01) and reason for consultation (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The need for better physical and psychological investigation is confirmed in order to promote not only disease remission but overall wellbeing.

Impairment of homonymous processing in Alzheimer's disease.

An important issue in research on language is how concepts are represented and associated with each other in the brain. Many investigations have focused on language ambiguity and the phenomenon of homonymy in which a single lexical item, presenting the same form, is related to different meanings. Our study aims to test the hypothesis that weak association of meaning characterizing homonyms may be especially prone to brain damage. To verify this hypothesis a test of attribution of the meaning of homonymous words, the Humpty Dumpty (HD) test, was applied to 50 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 50 healthy subjects. Results show that AD patients are impaired in the HD test in an early phase of disease and that performance correlates with naming ability and phonological fluency. The data are in keeping with a growing body of literature that supports dual impairment to the semantic system in AD, i.e., to semantic knowledge and active processing and access to the semantic field. The evaluation of the ability to resolve homonymous ambiguity, using the HD test, may provide a useful and quick clinical tool to detect the anomalies of the semantic network linked to either a loss of the core system where meaning of words is stored or an impairment of the access to an intact semantic representation.

Brief report: functional MRI of a patient with 7q11.23 duplication syndrome and autism spectrum disorder.

The duplication of the Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) region (7q11.23) is a copy number variant associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One of the most intriguing aspects is that the reciprocal microdeletion causes WBS, characterized by hypersociability, marked empathy, and a relative capacity in verbal short-term memory and language. Herein, we studied, by using functional morphological and volumetric magnetic resonance, a 17-year-old male patient who displays a de novo 7q11.23 duplication and ASD. The limbic system of the patient appeared hypo-functional, while the total brain volume was increased, thus contrasting, in an opposite and intriguing manner, with the global brain volume reduction reported in WBS. Even if these findings come from the analysis of a single patient and, therefore, have to be considered preliminary results, they encourage carrying on further functional and volumetric studies in patients with 7q11.23 duplication, to fully elucidate the role of this gene-dosage alteration on brain development and limbic system function.