Anisometry of space representation in unilateral neglect: empirical test of a former hypothesis.

When left-neglect patients are required to extend horizontal segments to double their original length, relative left overextension is frequently observed. Less frequently, relative left underextension may also be found. It was hypothesized that this contrast could depend on the degree of horizontal anisometry of the medium for the representation of spatial properties. The present paper reports an experiment conducted in order to test that hypothesis, on the basis of which left overextension should be larger with shorter than with longer segments and with segments lying in the right rather than in the left hemispace. Although supportive, the results unveiled unexpected complications: the expected effect of line length was found only in neglect patients with frontal damage, while the expected effect of side of presentation was found only in neglect patients without frontal damage.

Two-dimensional distortion of space representation in unilateral neglect: perceptual and response-related factors.

The paper reports the results of an experiment in which left-neglect patients were required to point at the location they judged vertically to correspond (within the frame of the visual stimulus display they were given) with a cue that was variably located along a left-right axis lying proximally or distally with respect to the left-right axis over which they had to give their response. Patients were found to make rightward errors as in a similar, single-case study. The significant positive correlation between those errors and the degree of response bias on a manual-response version of the Milner Landmark Task suggests that rightward pointing errors made by left-neglect patients in conditions such as those set in the present experiment are due to a dysfunction selectively affecting an output-related component of space representation.

[Risk factors of acute cerebral ischemia in geriatrics. Personal observations]. / I fattori di rischio dell'ischemia cerebrale acuta in geriatria. Osservazioni personali.

Risk factors for acute cerebral ischemia in geriatrics were assessed in two groups of 100 patients by comparing anamnestic data (based on a personal questionnaire) to laboratory data. The first group included patients affected by ischemic ictus not more than 45 days prior to the start of the study; the second group comprised geriatric subjects whose clinical characteristics were considered "normal for their age". The study took into account both the quality and quantity of findings. It was observed that risk factors play a more important role in women. Arterial hypertension, cardiopathies, cerebrovascular symptomatology, drug therapy, hyperfibrinogenemia and the number of red blood cells were the most important risk factors, followed by hematocrit, hemoglobin, total cholesterol and ATS ratio. The importance of the familiar factor for women and the lack of a role for HDL cholesterol in men were underlined.

[Depression in internal medicine. Cerebral ictus]. / La depressione in medicina interna. L'ictus cerebrale.

Despite the fact that it is one of the main and most common neuropsychological complications of cerebral ictus, depression is often overlooked and at times even mistaken for poor motivation, above all in patients with marked speech disorders. Several factors (organic, psychological, social, etc.) contribute to depression and for this reason simple pharmacological treatment is often not sufficient. The paper discusses the most important data taken from the literature relating to this topic.