The development of brain rhythms at rest and its impact on vocabulary acquisition.

A long-standing question in developmental science is how the neurodevelopment of the brain influences cognitive functions. Here, we examined the developmental change of resting EEG power and its links to vocabulary acquisition in school-age children. We further explored what mechanisms may mediate the relation between brain rhythm maturation and vocabulary knowledge. Eyes-opened resting-state EEG data were recorded from 53 typically-developing Chinese children every 2 years between the ages of 7 and 11. Our results showed first that delta, theta, and gamma power decreased over time, whereas alpha and beta power increased over time. Second, after controlling for general cognitive abilities, age, home literacy environment, and phonological skills, theta decreases explained 6.9% and 14.4% of unique variance in expressive vocabulary at ages 9 and 11, respectively. We also found that beta increase from age 7 to 9 significantly predicted receptive vocabulary at age 11. Finally, theta decrease predicted expressive vocabulary through the effects of phoneme deletion at age 9 and tone discrimination at age 11. These results substantiate the important role of brain oscillations at rest, especially theta rhythm, in language development. The developmental change of brain rhythms could serve as sensitive biomarkers for vocabulary development in school-age children, which would be of great value in identifying children at risk of language impairment.

Piano training enhances the neural processing of pitch and improves speech perception in Mandarin-speaking children.

Musical training confers advantages in speech-sound processing, which could play an important role in early childhood education. To understand the mechanisms of this effect, we used event-related potential and behavioral measures in a longitudinal design. Seventy-four Mandarin-speaking children aged 4-5 y old were pseudorandomly assigned to piano training, reading training, or a no-contact control group. Six months of piano training improved behavioral auditory word discrimination in general as well as word discrimination based on vowels compared with the controls. The reading group yielded similar trends. However, the piano group demonstrated unique advantages over the reading and control groups in consonant-based word discrimination and in enhanced positive mismatch responses (pMMRs) to lexical tone and musical pitch changes. The improved word discrimination based on consonants correlated with the enhancements in musical pitch pMMRs among the children in the piano group. In contrast, all three groups improved equally on general cognitive measures, including tests of IQ, working memory, and attention. The results suggest strengthened common sound processing across domains as an important mechanism underlying the benefits of musical training on language processing. In addition, although we failed to find far-transfer effects of musical training to general cognition, the near-transfer effects to speech perception establish the potential for musical training to help children improve their language skills. Piano training was not inferior to reading training on direct tests of language function, and it even seemed superior to reading training in enhancing consonant discrimination.

Differences between child and adult large-scale functional brain networks for reading tasks.

Reading is an important high-level cognitive function of the human brain, requiring interaction among multiple brain regions. Revealing differences between children's large-scale functional brain networks for reading tasks and those of adults helps us to understand how the functional network changes over reading development. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 17 adults (19-28 years old) and 16 children (11-13 years old), and graph theoretical analyses to investigate age-related changes in large-scale functional networks during rhyming and meaning judgment tasks on pairs of visually presented Chinese characters. We found that: (1) adults had stronger inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree in occipital regions, while children had stronger inter-regional connectivity in temporal regions, suggesting that adults rely more on visual orthographic processing whereas children rely more on auditory phonological processing during reading. (2) Only adults showed between-task differences in inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree, whereas children showed no task differences, suggesting the topological organization of adults' reading network is more specialized. (3) Children showed greater inter-regional connectivity and nodal degree than adults in multiple subcortical regions; the hubs in children were more distributed in subcortical regions while the hubs in adults were more distributed in cortical regions. These findings suggest that reading development is manifested by a shift from reliance on subcortical to cortical regions. Taken together, our study suggests that Chinese reading development is supported by developmental changes in brain connectivity properties, and some of these changes may be domain-general while others may be specific to the reading domain.

Just-noticeable difference of tone pitch contour change for Mandarin congenital amusics.

Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder that may affect the processing of both music pitch and lexical tone. In the present study, the just-noticeable differences (JNDs) of tone pitch contour change were examined for three groups of Mandarin-native listeners: amusics with (tone agnosics) and without lexical tone difficulties (pure amusics), and matched controls. Tone agnosics showed significantly larger JNDs than normal controls, while pure amusics performed comparably with the controls. These results suggest that only those amusics with behavioral lexical tone deficits might be psychophysically impaired in pitch contour discrimination.

Mandarin-Speaking Amusics' Online Recognition of Tone and Intonation.

PURPOSE: Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic disorder of musical pitch processing. Its linguistic consequences have been examined separately for speech intonations and lexical tones. However, in a tonal language such as Chinese, the processing of intonations and lexical tones interacts with each other during online speech perception. Whether and how the musical pitch disorder might affect linguistic pitch processing during online speech perception remains unknown. METHOD: We investigated this question with intonation (question vs. statement) and lexical tone (rising Tone 2 vs. falling Tone 4) identification tasks using the same set of sentences, comparing behavioral and event-related potential measurements between Mandarin-speaking amusics and matched controls. We specifically focused on the amusics without behavioral lexical tone deficits (the majority, i.e., pure amusics). RESULTS: Results showed that, despite relative to normal performance when tested in word lexical tone test, pure amusics demonstrated inferior recognition than controls during sentence tone and intonation identification. Compared to controls, pure amusics had larger N400 amplitudes in question stimuli during tone task and smaller P600 amplitudes in intonation task. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that musical pitch disorder affects both tone and intonation processing during sentence processing even for pure amusics, whose lexical tone processing was intact when tested with words.

Differential roles of right temporal cortex and Broca's area in pitch processing: evidence from music and Mandarin.

Superior temporal and inferior frontal cortices are involved in the processing of pitch information in the domain of language and music. Here, we used fMRI to test the particular roles of these brain regions in the neural implementation of pitch in music and in tone language (Mandarin) with a group of Mandarin speaking musicians whose pertaining experiences in pitch are similar across domains. Our findings demonstrate that the neural network for pitch processing includes the pars triangularis of Broca's area and the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) across domains. Within this network, pitch sensitive activation in Broca's area is tightly linked to the behavioral performance of pitch congruity judgment, thereby reflecting controlled processes. Activation in the right STG is independent of performance and more sensitive to pitch congruity in music than in tone language, suggesting a domain-specific modulation of the perceptual processes. These observations provide a first glimpse at the cortical pitch processing network shared across domains.

Behavioral and neural rhythm sensitivities predict phonological awareness and word reading development in Chinese.

The present study examined both the development of behavioral and electrophysiological rhythm processing and their contribution to phonological awareness and word reading in Chinese. We followed a sample of 47 Mandarin-speaking Chinese children from age 9 (Grade 3) to age 11 (Grade 5). Results showed first a significant improvement over time in behavioral beat perception and in P3as for small beat changes. Second, behavioral and neural beat sensitivities at age 9 predicted phonological awareness (phoneme deletion and tone identification) at age 11 and its development over the two-year span of the study. Neural beat sensitivities at age 9 also explained unique variance in reading accuracy (but not reading fluency) at age 11 and its two-year development. Taken together, these findings suggest that rhythm and Chinese reading-related skills are intricately related. Neural rhythm sensitivities could serve as predictive biomarkers for the development of phonological awareness and reading in Chinese school-age children.

Neural activations to loss anticipation mediates the association between difficulties in emotion regulation and screen media activities among early adolescent youth: A moderating role for depression.

BACKGROUND: Screen media activities (SMAs; e.g., watching videos, playing videogames) have become increasingly prevalent among youth as ways to alleviate or escape from negative emotional states. However, neural mechanisms underlying these processes in youth are incompletely understood. METHOD: Seventy-nine youth aged 11-15 years completed a monetary incentive delay task during fMRI scanning. Neural correlates of reward/loss processing and their associations with SMAs were explored. Next, brain activations during reward/loss processing in regions implicated in the processing of emotions were examined as potential mediating factors between difficulties in emotion regulation (DER) and engagement in SMAs. Finally, a moderated mediation model tested the effects of depressive symptoms in such relationships. RESULT: The emotional components associated with SMAs in reward/loss processing included activations in the left anterior insula (AI) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during anticipation of working to avoid losses. Activations in both the AI and DLPFC mediated the relationship between DER and SMAs. Moreover, depressive symptoms moderated the relationship between AI activation in response to loss anticipation and SMAs. CONCLUSION: The current findings suggest that DER link to SMAs through loss-related brain activations implicated in the processing of emotions and motivational avoidance, particularly in youth with greater levels of depressive symptoms. The findings suggest the importance of enhancing emotion-regulation tendencies/abilities in youth and, in particular, their regulatory responses to negative emotional situations in order to guide moderate engagement in SMAs.

Spectrum-Efficacy Relationships between GC-MS Fingerprints of Essential Oil from Valerianae Jatamansi Rhizoma et Radix and the Efficacy of Inhibiting Microglial Activation.

The bioactive ingredients of essential oil from Valerianae Jatamansi Rhizoma et Radix (the Rhizome et Radix from Valerianae Jatamansi Jones) (EOVJRR) on the efficacy of inhibiting microglial activation were investigated with the approach of spectrum-efficacy relationship. Fourteen batches of Valerianae Jatamansi Rhizoma et Radix were extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and their activities in the efficacy of inhibiting microglial activation were assayed by measuring the inflammatory responses induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in microglia cells from mice. The spectrum-efficacy relationships between fingerprints and the efficacy of inhibiting microglial activation of EOVJRR were established by grey relational analysis (GRA). Twenty common peaks were obtained from the GC-MS fingerprints of EOVJRR. P12 (vetivenol), P1 (bornyl acetate), P5 (seychellene), and P3 (ß-elemene) indicated inhibition on microglia activation together, according to the spectrum-efficacy relationships. The current results established a general model for the spectrum-efficacy relationships of EOVJRR by GC-MS and the efficacy of inhibiting microglial activation, which could be applied to identify the bioactive ingredient and control the quality of herbs.

Congenital amusia in speakers of a tone language: association with lexical tone agnosia.

Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic disorder that affects the processing of musical pitch in speakers of non-tonal languages like English and French. We assessed whether this musical disorder exists among speakers of Mandarin Chinese who use pitch to alter the meaning of words. Using the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, we tested 117 healthy young Mandarin speakers with no self-declared musical problems and 22 individuals who reported musical difficulties and scored two standard deviations below the mean obtained by the Mandarin speakers without amusia. These 22 amusic individuals showed a similar pattern of musical impairment as did amusic speakers of non-tonal languages, by exhibiting a more pronounced deficit in melody than in rhythm processing. Furthermore, nearly half the tested amusics had impairments in the discrimination and identification of Mandarin lexical tones. Six showed marked impairments, displaying what could be called lexical tone agnosia, but had normal tone production. Our results show that speakers of tone languages such as Mandarin may experience musical pitch disorder despite early exposure to speech-relevant pitch contrasts. The observed association between the musical disorder and lexical tone difficulty indicates that the pitch disorder as defining congenital amusia is not specific to music or culture but is rather general in nature.

A novel route to prepare Fe3O4/P(MAA-co-NVP) cross-linked magnetic composite microspheres with core-shell architecture by surface-initiated radical dispersion polymerization.

A novel route was proposed to design and construct a magnetic composite microsphere with a controllable and regular core-shell architecture, which consists of Fe3O4 nanoparticles chemical-covalently encapsulated with pH-smart poly(methacrylic acid-co-N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (P(MAA-co-NVP)) cross-linked copolymers by a surface-initiated radical dispersion polymerization approach. The multistep surface treatment was employed to improve the dispersity and surface-chemical reactivity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles, involving introduction of active -NH2 groups, coupling of 1,1-methylene bis-(4-isocyanato-cyclohexane) and immobilizing of 2,2'-azobis[2-methyl-N-(2-hydroxyethyl) propionamide]. The structure and morphological characterization were carried out by FTIR, TEM, SEM and XRD etc. The neat Fe3O4 nanoparticles take on an aggregated spherical shape with an average diameter of about 12 nm, while Fe3O4/P(MAA-co-NVP) magnetic microspheres assume regularly monodispersed spheres with a mean dimension of ca. 0.8 microm. The dimension of the microspheres is abruptly increased with increasing pH values of the media. The microspheres exhibit superparamagnetic properties. It is expected that this type of novel microspheres can be employed as a magnetic targeted and pH-sensitive drug carrier.

[Clinicopathologic study of von Hippel-Lindau syndrome-related and sporadic hemangioblastomas of central nervous system].

OBJECTIVE: To study clinicopathologic features, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome-related and sporadic hemangioblastomas of the central nervous system (CNS-HB). METHODS: Histopathological, ultrastructural, immunohistochemical (EnVision method) and clinical features of 21 VHL syndrome and 63 sporadic CNS-HB cases were studied with correlation of the available follow-up information. RESULTS: Twenty-one VHL patients accompanied with a total of 87 CNS-HBs, including one patient of developing 12 HBs within 13 years. There were 10 patients presenting other lesions related to VHL, including 6 retinal HBs, 4 pancreatic tumors (endocrine tumor and microcystic cystadenoma), 1 clear renal cell carcinoma, 4 renal cysts and 1 endolymphatic sac tumor. One patient developed 5 different tumors related to VHL within a period of 4 years. In the 63 cases of sporadic CNS-HB (34 male and 29 female), the mean age was 43.0 years. Among the 18 VHL syndrome patients with available follow-up information, 14 were still alive and within them, 4 became disabled and 11 had developed new lesions. The other 4 patients died. Among the 42 patients of sporadic HB with follow-up information, 39 were alive including 3 disabled cases, and the other 3 died. Histologically, the tumors showed large and vacuolated stromal cells. Some tumors showed atypical nuclei. Involvement of the brain tissue was seen in 32 cases, among which, 21 patients with available follow-up information were learnt to be alive. Tumor cells of HB stained positive for vimentin, EGFR, Inhibin alpha and D2-40, but negative for CD34 and CD68. In 3 cases of HB, some stromal cells were positive for GFAP. All cases showed a low expression for Ki-67, except 2 cases with 2% and 1 case with 5% Ki-67 indices. CONCLUSIONS: VHL syndrome is a multisystem disorder with a poor prognosis and a high rate of missed diagnosis. The syndrome is characterized by development of various benign and malignant tumors. The most common tumor is CNS-HB, which occurs predominantly in the cerebellum. Patients with VHL syndrome tend to present at a younger age than patients with sporadic CNS-HBs, and VHL related HB occurs more predominantly in the brain stem and spinal cord. Prognosis of CNS-HB patients is not correlated with the nuclear atypicality, expression for Ki-67 and involvement of the brain tissue. Because new lesions may develop during the patient's lifetime. So that, regular clinical inspection is recommended in order to check up the development of any new lesions.

[Analysis of 12 206 cases of external pathology consultation].

OBJECTIVE: To study the concordance rate of external pathology consultation referred by hospitals of various scales and to evaluate the value of such practice. METHODS: A total of 12 206 external pathology consultation cases referred by outside institutions were encountered during a 5-year period. The final pathologic diagnoses in 3289 cases were compared with the original interpretations. Each case was reviewed by at least two experienced pathologists. Immunohistochemical study was carried in selected examples. The pathologic findings were categorized as follows: (1) no diagnostic discrepancy, (2) minor diagnostic discrepancy and (3) major diagnostic discrepancy. RESULTS: Amongst the 12 206 cases studied, 7198 cases (59.0%) were sampled from the digestive tract, hematolymphoid system, soft tissue or breast. Seven thousand eight hundred and sixty-five cases (64.4%) were referred by small and medium-sized hospitals, while only 948 cases (7.8%) were referred by large hospitals (ranked IIIA). The diagnoses in 1842 cases (15.1%) were confirmed upon examination of the original paraffin sections, while the diagnoses in 2569 cases (21.1%) were made with cutting of additional sections from the paraffin blocks. On the other hand, the diagnoses in 7795 cases (63.8%) were arrived with the application of ancillary studies, including histochemistry and immunohistochemistry. Amongst the 3289 cases reviewed, diagnostic agreement was noted in 582 cases (17.7%), while major diagnostic discrepancy was observed in 113 cases (3.4%), including a change in diagnosis from "benign" to "malignant" in 31 cases (0.9%) and from "malignant" to "benign" in 38 cases (1.1%). The pathologic classification of the original diagnoses was modified in 44 cases (1.3%). CONCLUSIONS: External pathology consultation is useful for patient management in small and medium-sized hospitals, especially in resolving difficult and controversial pathologic diagnoses. Application of ancillary techniques, including immunohistochemistry, further helps to clear up the potential diagnostic dilemma.

[Clinicopathological study of 5 cases of proximal-type epithelioid sarcoma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics, diagnosis and differential diagnoses of proximal-type epithelioid sarcoma (PES). METHODS: Five cases of PES were retrieved from pathology files. Clinical, pathologic and immunohistochemical features of the tumors were reviewed. RESULTS: One patient was female and 4 were male. Ages of the patients ranged from 19 to 46 years. The sites of the tumor involvement were vulvar (2 cases), hypogastric zone (1 case), anterosuperior iliac spine (1 case) and buttock (1 case). Clinically, the tumor masses were painless and progressive solitary nodules. Microscopically, the tumor cell growth was infiltrative in nature, nodular in appearance with degenerative and necrotic cells at the central areas. The tumors consisted of relatively uniform epithelioid cells with round or oval nuclei and eosinophilic cytoplasm. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for vimentin (5/5), CK (4/5), EMA (4/5), beta-catenin (3/5), CD34 (3/5), and S-100 protein (1/5), but were negative for SMA, MyoD1, Desmin, HMB-45, CK7 and CK20. CONCLUSION: Definitive diagnosis of PES relies on its histopathological characteristics in conjunction with appropriate immunohistochemical findings.

Vowel and Tone Identification for Mandarin Congenital Amusics: Effects of Vowel Type and Semantic Content.

Purpose This study aimed to explore the effects of Mandarin congenital amusia with or without lexical tone deficit (i.e., tone agnosia and pure amusia) on Mandarin vowel and tone identification in different types of vowels (e.g., monophthong, diphthongs, and triphthongs) embedded in consonant-vowel contexts with and without semantic content. Method Thirteen pure amusics (i.e., amusics with normal lexical processing), 5 tone agnosics (i.e., with lexical tone deficit), and 12 controls were screened with Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia and lexical tone tests (Nan et al., 2010; Peretz et al., 2003). Vowel-plus-tone identification tasks with the factors of vowel type and syllables with and without semantic content (e.g., real and nonsense words) were examined among the 3 groups, and identification scores were calculated in 3 formats: vowel-plus-tone identification, vowel identification, and tone identification. Results Tone agnosics showed significantly poorer performances on identifications of vowel, tone, and vowel plus tone across monophthongs, diphthongs, and triphthongs in both real and nonsense words compared to pure amusics and controls. Their deficits were similar across the 3 types of vowels, while the deficit on vowel-plus-tone identification was more severe in nonsense words than in real words. On the other hand, pure amusics performed similarly with controls across all these conditions. Conclusions Tone agnosia might affect both musical pitch and phonological processing, resulting in deficits in lexical tone and vowel perception. On the contrary, pure amusics's effect is primarily on musical pitch perception but not on lexical tone or phonemic deficit. Vowel type did not affect speech deficits for tone agnosics, while they relied more on semantic content as a compensation.

What Makes Lexical Tone Special: A Reverse Accessing Model for Tonal Speech Perception.

Previous studies of tonal speech perception have generally suggested harder or later access to lexical tone than segmental information, but the mechanism underlying the lexical tone disadvantage is unclear. Using a speeded discrimination paradigm free of context information, we confirmed multiple lines of evidence for the lexical tone disadvantage as well as revealed a distinctive advantage of word and atonal syllable judgments over phoneme and lexical tone judgments. The results led us to propose a Reverse Accessing Model (RAM) for tonal speech perception. The RAM is an extension of the influential TRACE model, with two additional processing levels specialized for tonal speech: lexical tone and atonal syllable. Critically, information accessing is assumed to be in reverse order of information processing, and only information at the syllable level and up is maintained active for immediate use. We tested and confirmed the predictions of the RAM on discrimination of each type of phonological component under different stimulus conditions. The current results have thus demonstrated the capability of the RAM as a general framework for tonal speech perception to provide a united account for empirical observations as well as to generate testable predictions.

[Clinicopathologic study of pilocytic astrocytoma].

OBJECTIVE: To study clinicopathologic features, treatment and prognosis of pilocytic astrocytoma (PA). METHODS: Histopathological, ultrastructural, immunohistochemical (EnVision method) and clinical features of 68 cases of PA were studied by microscopic investigation with correlation of clinical follow-up information when available. RESULTS: Thirty-five male patients and 33 female patients were studied. The patient's age ranged from 3 to 66 years (mean = 20.1 years). The mean time from symptom onset to surgery was 371 days (range, 3 days to 14 years). Cystic degeneration was noted in 41 cases (60.3%), and enhancement of the tumor was noted in 43 cases (87.8%). On postcontrast imaging examination there were 33 cases involving the cerebellum (48.5%). Total tumor excision was performed in 35 patients, subtotal tumor excision was performed in 31 patients, and the procedures of other 2 patients were not clear. Among 51 patients with follow-up information, 44 were alive, 7 had recurrent tumor, and 7 died. The post-operative survival ranged from 2 months to 124 months (mean survival = 48.1 months). Five years and ten years survival rates were 89%, respectively. Tumors with classic histopathology demonstrated biphasic pattern of growth, consisting of compact elongated bipolar astrocytes associated with rosenthal fibers, and less cellular areas of multipolar cells with granular bodies and microcyst. Some cases showed atypia of nuclei, and occasional mitoses. Involvement of subarachnoid space was seen in 17 cases. One case had anaplastic features. All cases showed diffuse positive staining for GFAP and low expression for Ki-67, except 1 anaplastic tumor with 10% Ki-67 indices. Tumors with subarachnoid space involvement showed positive reticular fiber staining and negative EMA staining. CONCLUSIONS: PA is a benign, WHO grade I tumor with favorable prognosis, and does not require radiotherapy after total resection. The tumor can be mistaken as higher-grade astrocytoma when involving the subarachnoid space, and with cytological atypia, leading to unnecessary radiotherapy after surgery. Recurrence rate is increased when only partial resection is achieved. The outcome for patients with brainstem tumor or anaplastic PA is poor.

[A study of the histopathological characteristics of nontuberculous mycobacteria lymphadenitis].

OBJECTIVE: To describe the distinctive histopathological changes of nontuberculous mycobacteria lymphadenitis. METHODS: An experimental animal model of nontuberculous mycobacteria lymphadenitis was established and the histopathological changes were observed by light microscope. The paraffin imbedded tissue samples from patients suspected of having lymphoid tuberculosis were also detected by triplex polymerase chain reaction and studied by light microscope. RESULTS: The distinctive histopathological changes of nontuberculous mycobacteria lymphadenitis in the animal model were as follows: (1) Tubercular granuloma formation in lymph nodes which were infected with nontuberculous mycobacteria. Coagulation necrosis was located at the center of the granuloma, and the necrosis looked different from the caseation necrosis caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis. Many neutrophils and their nuclear debris were distributed over the necrosis area. Surrounding the central necrosis area, many epithelioid cells, lymph cells and mononuclear cells could be found. The periphery of the granuloma was surrounded by fibrous tissues. Langhans giant cells could be found in the granuloma and outside the granuloma, while these cells were usually found only in the granuloma of tuberculosis. (2) Serpiginous necrosis was found in the lymph nodes infected with nontuberculous mycobacteria. Many neutrophils and their nuclear debris were distributed over the necrosis area. Around the central necrosis area, many epithelioid cells, lymph cells and mononuclear cells could be found. The fibrous tissues were in the borderline. (3) Star-like necrosis and aristiform necrosis were also found in lymph nodes infected with nontuberculous mycobacteria. A paraffin imbedded tissue sample was detected by triplex polymerase chain reaction and the diagnosis of nontuberculous mycobacteria lymphadenitis was made. In this sample, epithelioid granuloma, serpiginous necrosis and star-like necrosis were found. Neutrophils and their nuclear debris were found distributed over the necrosis area, while epithelioid cells, lymph cells, mononuclear cells and Langhans giant cells were found around the central necrosis area. Polar arrangement of the nuclei of epithelioid cells was evident. The lesion was surrounded by fibrous and collagen tissues. CONCLUSION: Serpiginous, star-like and aristiform necrosis were the distinctive histopathological changes of nontuberculous mycobacteria lymphadenitis. Neutrophils and their nuclear debris were abundant over the necrosis area. Polar arrangement of the nuclei of epithelioid cells was also a distinctive histopathological manifestation.

The lateralized arcuate fasciculus in developmental pitch disorders among mandarin amusics: left for speech and right for music.

The arcuate fasciculus (AF) is a neural fiber tract that is critical to speech and music development. Although the predominant role of the left AF in speech development is relatively clear, how the AF engages in music development is not understood. Congenital amusia is a special neurodevelopmental condition, which not only affects musical pitch but also speech tone processing. Using diffusion tensor tractography, we aimed at understanding the role of AF in music and speech processing by examining the neural connectivity characteristics of the bilateral AF among thirty Mandarin amusics. Compared to age- and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched controls, amusics demonstrated increased connectivity as reflected by the increased fractional anisotropy in the right posterior AF but decreased connectivity as reflected by the decreased volume in the right anterior AF. Moreover, greater fractional anisotropy in the left direct AF was correlated with worse performance in speech tone perception among amusics. This study is the first to examine the neural connectivity of AF in the neurodevelopmental condition of amusia as a result of disrupted music pitch and speech tone processing. We found abnormal white matter structural connectivity in the right AF for the amusic individuals. Moreover, we demonstrated that the white matter microstructural properties of the left direct AF is modulated by lexical tone deficits among the amusic individuals. These data support the notion of distinctive pitch processing systems between music and speech.