[Specific aspects of the nervous system and brain blood supply in women during prolonged anti-orthostatic hypokinesia]. / Osobennosti sostoianiia nervnoi sistemy i mozgovogo krovoobrashcheniia u zhenshchin v usloviiakh dlitel'noi antiortostaticheskoi gipokinezii.

The nervous system and cerebral hemodynamics studies of eight essentially healthy female test-subjects during the 120-d head-down bed rest included analysis of life history and monthly clinical/neurophysiological examinations (neurological testing, REG, Doppler ultrasound investigation of main arteries of the head). Altered positioning of the head and prolonged bed rest were shown to incur the risk of insufficient cerebral circulation. Most often hemodynamic deviations were observed in the vertebrobasilar basin consequent to the experimental conditions and specifics of the anatomical site of the vertebral arteries in the bony vertebral canal; clinically they were manifested by involvement of truncal structures of the brain. The second month of bed rest should be considered critical because of the evidence of the unstable neurological microsymptomatology implying hemodynamic shifts in the main cerebral arteries by the time. Physical exercises during bed rest slacken the pace of cerebral hemodynamics deviations.

[Features of disorders of higher cortical function in patients with incipient cerebral atherosclerosis]. / Osobennosti rasstroistv vysshikh korkovykh funktsii u bol'nykh s nachal'nym tserebral'nym aterosklerozom.

The findings from a neuropsychological study of 95 patients with initial cerebral atherosclerosis were analyzed. Higher cortical dysfunctions were revealed most commonly while examining acoustic and optic gnosis and mnemonic functions as well as in tests involving calculation operations and tasks requiring active and stable attention and intact spatial orientation. The factors causing these disorders vary in incipient manifestations of the compromised brain circulation versus early dyscirculatory encephalopathy. In patients with initial manifestations of impaired cerebral circulation, disorders of higher cortical functions are associated with disturbances of voluntary attention whereas dyscirculatory encephalopathy leads to dysfunctions of the gnostic systems, disorders of neural processes mobility and modal-specific mnemonic impairments. It is possible to trace the time-course of these disturbances ranging from mild defects of the higher cortical functions organization due to the impairment of voluntary attention to the dysfunction of the integrated hemisphere systems, arising from the inadequacy of their blood supply.