Quantitative studies on speech characteristics of aphasics. A statistical approach to vocabulary.

The paper presents a linguistic-statistical study of the vocabulary and word-frequency as well as of the variety and frequency distribution of the parts of speech. Ten aphasics were studied in comparison with 10 normal controls. A corpus of 2,500 words was collected in each subject by means of a standard-interview. A significant reduction of vocabulary was noted in aphasics, especially of rare words, the frequent ones becoming still more frequent. Vocabulary reduction unequally affected the various grammatical categories; whereas the proportion of "conceptual" words (noun, adjective, verb) was markedly reduced in aphasics, that of "operational" ones (pronoun, numeral, preposition, conjunction) was less affected.

Relations between the pulvinar-lateralis posterior complex of the thalamus and the hippocampus in wakefulness and sleep in cats.

Paucisynaptic connections between n. lateralis posterior (LP) and dorsal hippocampus (Hip) have been demonstrated in acute experiments. In the free moving cats, with chronic implanted electrodes on the neocortex, in LP, pulvinar (Pul), VA and VL nuclei of the thalamus and in the dorsal hippocampus (Hip), the theta waves recorded in LP, Pul and Hip were not of the same frequency and origin. In wakefulness and in slow-wave sleep, the theta waves were of 3.5-4 c/s and occurred exclusively or predominantly in Pul-LP, while in paradoxical sleep they were of 5-6 c/s, occurred' in Hip and invaded the Pul-LP. These two types of theta waves represent two distinct modalities of their organization and reflect the involvement of different mechanisms in the different phases of sleep.

[Neuropsychological investigations of thought processes in aphasics (author's transl)]. / Der Denkprozess der Aphasiker. Neuropsychologische Untersuchungen.

Fifteen aphasics and 10 patients with cortical lesions of the right (nondominant) hemisphere were examined using 10 nonverbal psychological tests with 23 variants. The number of correct solutions and the duration of fulfillment of each variant were recorded with statistical significance and standard deviations. Aphasics as well as patients with right-sided cortical damage have lower scores than normal individuals for both correctness and duration of performance. The two groups of patients differed in that the number of correct solutions was higher in aphasics than it was in right-sided cortical injury cases. Aphasics required a longer time to perform the tests used by the authors than normals did, and those with right-sided cortical lesions required an even longer time. The results were also dependent on the kind of test applied. For example, the differences shown by tests 4, 5, 6, and 10 were comparatively less among the three groups (normals, aphasics, and right-sided damage of the cortex) and nonsignificant. The results are discussed in relation to thought processes, language, and aphasia.