The novel language-systematic aphasia screening SAPS: screening-based therapy in combination with computerised home training.

BACKGROUND: SAPS-'Sprachsystematisches Aphasiescreening'-is a novel language-systematic aphasia screening developed for the German language, which already had been positively evaluated. It offers a fast assessment of modality-specific psycholinguistic components at different levels of complexity and the derivation of impairment-based treatment foci from the individual performance profile. However, SAPS has not yet been evaluated in combination with the new SAPS-based treatment. AIMS: To replicate the practicality of SAPS and to investigate the effectiveness of a SAPS-based face-to-face therapy combined with computerised home training in a feasibility study. To examine the soundness of the treatment design, to determine treatment-induced changes in patient performance as measured by SAPS, to assess parallel changes in communicative abilities, and to differentiate therapy effects achieved by face-to-face therapy versus add-on effects achieved by later home training. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Sixteen participants with post-stroke aphasia (PWAs) were included into the study. They were administered the SAPS and communicative testing before and after the treatment regimen. Each PWA received one therapy session followed by home training per day, with the individual treatment foci being determined according to initial SAPS profile, and duration of treatment and possible change of focus dependent on performance assessed by continuous therapy monitoring. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The combination of therapy and home training based on the SAPS was effective for all participants. We showed significant improvements for impairment-based SAPS performance and, with high inter-individual variability, in everyday communication. These two main targets of speech and language therapy were correlated and SAPS improvements after therapy were significantly higher than after home training. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: SAPS offers the assessment of an individual performance profile in order to derive sufficiently diversified, well-founded and specific treatment foci and to follow up changes in performance. The appending treatment regimen has shown to be effective for our participants. Thus, the study revealed feasibility of our approach.

Neurogenesis in an early protostome relative: progenitor cells in the ventral nerve center of chaetognath hatchlings are arranged in a highly organized geometrical pattern.

Emerging evidence suggests that Chaetognatha represent an evolutionary lineage that is the sister group to all other Protostomia thus promoting these animals as a pivotal model for our understanding of bilaterian evolutionary history. We have analyzed the proliferation of neuronal progenitor cells in the developing ventral nerve center (VNC) of Spadella cephaloptera hatchlings. To that end, for the first time in Chaetognatha, we performed in vivo incorporation experiments with the S-phase specific mitosis marker bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). Our experiments provide evidence for a high level of mitotic activity in the VNC for ca. 3 days after hatching. Neurogenesis is carried by presumptive neuronal progenitor cells that cycle rapidly and most likely divide asymmetrically. These progenitors are arranged in a distinct grid-like geometrical pattern including about 35 transverse rows. Considering Chaetognaths to be an early offshoot of the protostome lineage we conclude that the presence of neuronal progenitor cells with asymmetric division seems to be a feature that is rooted deeply in the Metazoa. In the light of previous evidence indicating the presence of serially iterated peptidergic neurons with individual identities in the chaetognath VNC, we discuss if these neuronal progenitor cells give rise to distinct lineages. Furthermore, we evaluate the serially iterated arrangement of the progenitor cells in the light of evolution of segmentation.

Development of the nervous system in hatchlings of Spadella cephaloptera (Chaetognatha), and implications for nervous system evolution in Bilateria.

Chaetognaths (arrow worms) play an important role as predators in planktonic food webs. Their phylogenetic position is unresolved, and among the numerous hypotheses, affinities to both protostomes and deuterostomes have been suggested. Many aspects of their life history, including ontogenesis, are poorly understood and, though some aspects of their embryonic and postembryonic development have been described, knowledge of early neural development is still limited. This study sets out to provide new insights into neurogenesis of newly hatched Spadella cephaloptera and their development during the following days, with attention to the two main nervous centers, the brain and the ventral nerve center. These were examined with immunohistological methods and confocal laser-scan microscopic analysis, using antibodies against tubulin, FMRFamide, and synapsin to trace the emergence of neuropils and the establishment of specific peptidergic subsystems. At hatching, the neuronal architecture of the ventral nerve center is already well established, whereas the brain and the associated vestibular ganglia are still rudimentary. The development of the brain proceeds rapidly over the next 6 days to a state that resembles the adult pattern. These data are discussed in relation to the larval life style and behaviors such as feeding. In addition, we compare the larval chaetognath nervous system and that of other bilaterian taxa in order to extract information with phylogenetic value. We conclude that larval neurogenesis in chaetognaths does not suggest an especially close relationship to either deuterostomes or protostomes, but instead displays many apomorphic features.

Invertebrate neurophylogeny: suggested terms and definitions for a neuroanatomical glossary.

BACKGROUND: Invertebrate nervous systems are highly disparate between different taxa. This is reflected in the terminology used to describe them, which is very rich and often confusing. Even very general terms such as 'brain', 'nerve', and 'eye' have been used in various ways in the different animal groups, but no consensus on the exact meaning exists. This impedes our understanding of the architecture of the invertebrate nervous system in general and of evolutionary transformations of nervous system characters between different taxa. RESULTS: We provide a glossary of invertebrate neuroanatomical terms with a precise and consistent terminology, taxon-independent and free of homology assumptions. This terminology is intended to form a basis for new morphological descriptions. A total of 47 terms are defined. Each entry consists of a definition, discouraged terms, and a background/comment section. CONCLUSIONS: The use of our revised neuroanatomical terminology in any new descriptions of the anatomy of invertebrate nervous systems will improve the comparability of this organ system and its substructures between the various taxa, and finally even lead to better and more robust homology hypotheses.