The lost ability to distinguish between self and other voice following a brain lesion.

Mechanisms underlying the self/other distinction have been mainly investigated focusing on visual, tactile or proprioceptive cues, whereas very little is known about the contribution of acoustical information. Here the ability to distinguish between self and others' voice is investigated by using a neuropsychological approach. Right (RBD) and left brain damaged (LBD) patients and healthy controls were submitted to a voice discrimination and a voice recognition task. Stimuli were paired words/pseudowords pronounced by the participant, by a familiar or unfamiliar person. In the voice discrimination task, participants had to judge whether two voices were same or different, whereas in the voice recognition task participants had to judge whether their own voice was or was not present. Crucially, differences between patient groups were found. In the discrimination task, only RBD patients were selectively impaired when their own voice was present. By contrast, in the recognition task, both RBD and LBD patients were impaired and showed two different biases: RBD patients misattributed the other's voice to themselves, while LBD patients denied the ownership of their own voice. Thus, two kinds of bias can affect self-voice recognition: we can refuse self-stimuli (voice disownership), or we can misidentify others' stimuli as our own (embodiment of others' voice). Overall, these findings reflect different impairments in self/other distinction both at behavioral and anatomical level, the right hemisphere being involved in voice discrimination and both hemispheres in the voice identity explicit recognition. The finding of selective brain networks dedicated to processing one's own voice demonstrates the relevance of self-related acoustic information in bodily self-representation.

Ribosomal RNA genes of Phaseolus coccineus. IV. Structure and comparative-analysis of the intergenic spacer: possible involvement of some nucleotides in the transcription control of coding sequences. Sequence of the intergenic spacer of ribosomal genes.

The sequence of the intergenic spacer (IGS) of Phaseolus coccineus is determined. The IGS contains three distinct regions: Region A, constant in length; Region B, heterogeneous in length among genes, including two very similar segments 162 and 177 bp long, repeated two and nine times respectively in the investigated clone; Region C, constant in length, comprising five islands. The putative promoters and the sites of termination, processing and methylation are detected by a comparison with other plant systems.

[Anticonvulsant-induced rheumatism: does a possible role of carbamazepine exist? A clinical case with a 20-month follow-up]. / Reumatismo da anticonvulsivanti: esiste un possibile ruolo della carbamazepina? Caso clinico con follow-up di 20 mesi.

The rheumatism induced by anticonvulsants has been described in literature mostly because of phenobarbital therapy. The possible onset of this clinical picture due to other antiepileptic drugs is unusual and not well defined. We report the case of a 87-year-old female, affected by partial seizures treated with carbamazepine for 20 years, who came to our observation for the onset of disturbances that clearly resemble the classic syndrome of rheumatism induced by barbiturates: the diagnostic hypothesis of a drug side effect was confirmed by the marked clinical improvement of the patient after carbamazepine was stopped and substituted by gabapentin.

[Phenobarbital rheumatism associated with gouty arthritis. Case report with 18-month follow-up]. / Associazione reumatismo gardenalico--artrite gottosa: caso clinico con follow-up di 18 mesi.

Anticonvulsivant-induced rheumatism has been described in the literature mostly in relation to phenobarbital therapy. We report the case of an 85-year-old male affected by generalized seizures and treated with phenobarbital for some months, who came to our observation on account of a long-lasting arthropathy which was diagnosed as unknown gouty arthritis. After treatment however, a clinical picture of shoulder-hand syndrome persisted: this latter disappeared after substitution of phenobarbital with phenytoin. The association of a syndrome of rheumatism induced by barbiturates with gouty arthritis has not been previously described in the literature.

Molecular geometry of antigen binding by a monoclonal antibody against 5-methylcytidine.

1. The specificity of a monoclonal IgG1 raised against a 5-methylcytidine-keyhole limpet hemocyanin conjugate was investigated by inhibition experiments with soluble competing antigens. 2. A competitive enzyme immunoassay has been set up, with the antigen immobilized on polystyrene microtitration wells. 3. The analysis of the cross-reaction profile allowed the topography of the antigen-antibody interaction to be described. 4. The binding properties of the monoclonal antibody are discussed in terms of both analytical applications and working limitations in the immunochemical study of gene methylation.

Distribution of 5-methylcytosine-rich regions in the polytene chromosomes of Phaseolus coccineus embryo suspensor as shown by the immunoperoxidase technique.

5-Methylcytosine (5-mC) has been visualized in polytene chromosomes of Phaseolus coccineus, scarlet bean using specific antibodies to 5-mC and the immunoperoxidase technique. The results obtained indicate that most heterochromatic regions are methylated, even though the frequency of methylation is highly variable and sometimes low. A preferential binding of anti-5-mC to centromeric heterochromatic blocks was observed. Comparison between anti-5-mC binding and the results of hybridization with highly repetitive DNA and satellite DNA shows, moreover, that centrometric heterochromatic regions hybridize in particular with both DNAs. This finding is consistent with the fact that repetitive DNA and satellite DNA are methylated to a considerably greater extent than main band DNA, in line with many data to be found in the literature. The binding pattern of anti-5-mC that we observed also suggests that methylation does not occur in all classes of repetitive DNA. The high variability of band methylation frequency is discussed in relation to a possible characteristic DNA composition of the band.

Primary progressive aphasia: a patient with stress assignment impairment in reading aloud.

Surface dyslexia is a pattern of reading impairment which has been seldom described in Italian native speakers. We report the case of a female Italian patient, RM, suffering from primary progressive aphasia (PPA) of the fluent type, who presented stress assignment errors in reading aloud. In Italian these errors are considered to be strongly suggestive of surface dyslexia. We studied RM's reading performance in light of existing cognitive models on reading. Since the first assessment, she presented multi-level impairment involving pre-semantic, lexical-semantic and post-semantic stages. Her stress assignment errors have been interpreted as a generalisation of the most frequent tendency in Italian language: namely to assign stress to the penultimate syllable. In agreement with previous studies, our case suggests that surface dyslexia in PPA is not a monolithic entity but, on the contrary, that it may arise from impairment at various stages of the reading process.

Isolated neuritis of the sciatic nerve in a case of Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. The course of the disease is divided into three stages, the second of which may include various types of peripheral nervous system disturbances. We report the case of a patient with persistent deficits caused by the prevalent involvement of the sciatic nerve, confirmed by electrophysiological and neuropathological findings. The most significant bioptic results were axonal degeneration and perivascular inflammation. Damage to a single peripheral nerve as the dominant clinical expression during the course of Lyme disease is an unusual finding that has been rarely described in the literature.

Cytological localization of the genes for the four classes of ribosomal RNA (25S, 18S, 5.8S and 5S) in polytene chromosomes of Phaseolus coccineus.

Homologous tritiated 25S, 18S and 5.8S rRNAs were used separately for in situ hybridization to the polytene chromosomes of the embryo suspensor cells of phaseolus coccineus. Hybridization occurred at the same chromosomal sites which were labeled in previous in situ hybridization experiments with 25 + 18S rRNAs in the same material (Avanzi et al., 1972), namely: nucleolus organizing system (satellite, nucleolar constriction and organizer) of chromosome pairs I (S1) and V (S2), proximal heterochromatic segment of the long arm of chromosome pair I, and terminal heterochromatic segment of chromosome pair II. Competition hybridization experiments confirmed for P. coccineus the high sequence homology between 25S and 18S rRNA already known for other plants. Homologous 125I-5S rRNA was found to hybridize to three sites in the polytene chromosomes of P. coccineus: the proximal heterochromatic segment in the long arm of chromosome pair I (which also bears the sequences complementary to 25S, 18S and 5.8S RNAs), most of the proximal heterochromatic segment plus a small portion of adjoining euchromatin in the long arm of chromosome pair VI and the large intercalary heterochromatic segment in the same chromosome pair. Simultaneous labeling of the two 5S RNA sites in chromosome VI was quite rare (3%), the rule being labelling of one site to the exclusion of the other, with a labeling frequency of 43.7% and 53.3% for sites no. 1 and no. 2 respectively. These results are interpreted as being due to differential hybridizability of chromosomal sites such as described in other materials.

Ribosomal RNA genes of Phaseolus coccineus. I.

rDNA fragments, including the whole intergenic spacer (IGS) region of P. coccineus, were cloned into dephosphorylated pUC 13 plasmid. Four clones of different insert size were analysed. Restriction patterns and physical maps of these length variants (pPH1, pPH2, pPH5, pPH6) were performed through complete Eco RI cleavage and partial digestion with Hpa II, Hae III, Sau 3AI, Sma I. Evidence was obtained that the length heterogeneity of the four genes was mainly due to a differing number of about 170 bp sub-repeating elements in the IGS. Indeed, there are 16 of these in pPH1, about 34 in pPH2, 10 in pPH5 and about 60 in pPH6. The sequence analysis of pPH6 sub-repeats revealed that there are two types of sub-repeats: short ones (S) of 162 bp and long ones (L) of 176 bp. The homology between S and L is high (93.8%). S and L elements are present in at least three of the four genes investigated, as shown by a restriction pattern obtained with Hae III digestion to completion. The relative frequency of S and L types, however, differs among the four genes. The possible functional meaning of the sub-repeat structure is discussed on the basis of the homology between the S and L sequences on the one hand and on the other the ribosomal sequences of: i) Xenopus promoter(s); ii) wheat block A sub-repeats; iii) presumptive promoter(s) of wheat.

A qualitative analysis of the mini mental state examination on Alzheimer's disease patients treated with cholinesterase inhibitors.

The improvement in cognitive performances due to cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEls) is not homogeneous among Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects. Aim of this study is to evaluate whether a specific pattern of change in mini mental state examination (MMSE) could be observed in AD subjects after 9-month treatment with ChEls. From September 2000 to September 2002, 99 subjects enrolled in the CRONOS project. They have never been previously treated with ChEls. All of them completed both the 3- and the 9-month follow-up. The multidimensional assessment included MMSE, activity of daily living (ADL), instrumental activity of daily living (IADL), somatic health status, according to design of the CRONOSproject. The MMSE was analyzed both as a total score and disaggregated in 11 items. All subjects were divided in 2 groups according to the degree of change in MMSE total score from baseline to the 9th month. Subjects with a change 0 as responders (R). At start, no statistically significant differences were found between the 2 groups. MMSE score was significantly higher in the R group both at 3 (p < 0.0001) and 9 months (p < 0.0001), while functional status (ADL and IADL) was significantly lower in NR group at 9 months (p = 0.025; p =0.018, respectively). In MMSE qualitative analysis of 3-month, NR significantly worsened in temporal (p

Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of pivagabine in neurasthenia.

One hundred and eighteen patients with neurasthenia, as defined by ICD 10 (International Classification of Diseases), participated in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of pivagabine (4-[(2,2-dimethyl-1-oxopropyl)amino]butanoic acid, CAS 69542-93-4, Tonerg). Pivagabine 1800 mg/d was administered orally for four weeks. At the end of the trial, active medication was significantly superior to placebo on the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) improvement of illness scale. In addition, pivagabine treatment reduced the physical and mental fatigability of patients, and increased their sense of well-being.