Myoelectric, Myo-Oxygenation, and Myotonometry Changes during Robot-Assisted Bilateral Arm Exercises with Varying Resistances.

Robot-assisted bilateral arm training has demonstrated its effectiveness in improving motor function in individuals post-stroke, showing significant enhancements with increased repetitions. However, prolonged training sessions may lead to both mental and muscle fatigue. We conducted two types of robot-assisted bimanual wrist exercises on 16 healthy adults, separated by one week: long-duration, low-resistance workouts and short-duration, high-resistance exercises. Various measures, including surface electromyograms, near-infrared spectroscopy, heart rate, and the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion scale, were employed to assess fatigue levels and the impacts of exercise intensity. High-resistance exercise resulted in a more pronounced decline in electromyogram median frequency and recruited a greater amount of hemoglobin, indicating increased muscle fatigue and a higher metabolic demand to cope with the intensified workload. Additionally, high-resistance exercise led to increased sympathetic activation and a greater sense of exertion. Conversely, engaging in low-resistance exercises proved beneficial for reducing post-exercise muscle stiffness and enhancing muscle elasticity. Choosing a low-resistance setting for robot-assisted wrist movements offers advantages by alleviating mental and physiological loads. The reduced training intensity can be further optimized by enabling extended exercise periods while maintaining an approximate dosage compared to high-resistance exercises.

Diagnostic Value of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography for Catheter-Related Right Brachiocephalic Vein and Superior Vena Cava Lesions in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis-A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) for detecting catheter-related right brachiocephalic vein (RBV) and superior vena cava (SVC) obstructions in patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD). METHODS: From June 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022, we enrolled 80 patients undergoing HD who had used or were using a central venous catheter as vascular access. We evaluated the diagnostic efficacy of conventional ultrasonography and CEUS for identifying RBV and SVC obstructions and compared them with that of digital subtraction angiography (DSA). In the stratified analysis, the SVC was divided into the upper and lower segments. In total, we analyzed 240 central venous segments, including the RBV. RESULTS: Among the RBV and SVC visualized by DSA, conventional ultrasonography and CEUS could visualize 67.92 and 100% of the vein segments, respectively; however, the lengths and diameters of the RBV and SVC were smaller than those recorded with DSA (P < .001). The diagnostic efficacy of CEUS for detecting catheter-related central venous obstruction was better than that of conventional ultrasonography, with a higher sensitivity (83.95 vs 41.98%), specificity (89.94 vs 53.46%), accuracy (87.92 vs 49.58%), and F1 score (82.42 vs 49.64%). CEUS showed good agreement (κ = 0.732) with DSA. In the stratified analyses, CEUS also showed higher sensitivity (83.93, 83.33, and 84.62%, respectively) and better agreement with DSA (κ = 0.635, 0.655, and 0.673, respectively) than conventional ultrasonography for detecting the RBV and the upper and lower segments of the SVC. CONCLUSIONS: CEUS had high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing catheter-related RBV and SVC obstructions.

Dissolution rate enhancement of new co-crystals of ezetimibe with maleic acid and isonicotinamide.

Ezetimibe (EZT) is a selective cholesterol absorption inhibitor with poor aqueous solubility (0.012mg/ml 23oC) and low oral bioavailability (about 35-65% for a once 10mg dose). The present study illustrates the preparation and characterization of two new co-crystals of ezetimibe using maleic acid and isonicotinamide as the coformers by solid grinding method. The co-crystal structures were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (PXRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), infrared spectroscopy (IR) techniques. Crystallinity and surface morphological characteristics of these prepared co-crystals were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Dissolution rate tests demonstrated that both of the new co-crystals showed significant improvement in sodium lauryl sulfate -sodium acetate buffer solution (PH=4.5) at 15min and 20min. This study enriched the types of EZT co-crystals and identified that pharmaceutical co-crystal engineering technique play an important role in the dissolution rate enhancement of ezetimibe.

Left centro-parieto-temporal response to tool-gesture incongruity: an ERP study.

BACKGROUND: Action semantics have been investigated in relation to context violation but remain less examined in relation to the meaning of gestures. In the present study, we examined tool-gesture incongruity by event-related potentials (ERPs) and hypothesized that the component N400, a neural index which has been widely used in both linguistic and action semantic congruence, is significant for conditions of incongruence. METHODS: Twenty participants performed a tool-gesture judgment task, in which they were asked to judge whether the tool-gesture pairs were correct or incorrect, for the purpose of conveying functional expression of the tools. Online electroencephalograms and behavioral performances (the accuracy rate and reaction time) were recorded. RESULTS: The ERP analysis showed a left centro-parieto-temporal N300 effect (220-360 ms) for the correct condition. However, the expected N400 (400-550 ms) could not be differentiated between correct/incorrect conditions. After 700 ms, a prominent late negative complex for the correct condition was also found in the left centro-parieto-temporal area. CONCLUSIONS: The neurophysiological findings indicated that the left centro-parieto-temporal area is the predominant region contributing to neural processing for tool-gesture incongruity in right-handers. The temporal dynamics of tool-gesture incongruity are: (1) firstly enhanced for recognizable tool-gesture using patterns, (2) and require a secondary reanalysis for further examination of the highly complicated visual structures of gestures and tools. The evidence from the tool-gesture incongruity indicated altered brain activities attributable to the N400 in relation to lexical and action semantics. The online interaction between gesture and tool processing provided minimal context violation or anticipation effect, which may explain the missing N400.

Prognostic significance of K-ras mutations in pancreatic cancer: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: K-ras gene mutations are common in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC); however, their prognostic value for PC remains inconclusive. This meta-analysis was performed to quantitatively evaluate the association between K-ras mutations and survival in patients with pancreatic cancer. METHODS: We performed a comprehensive search of electronic sources including MEDLINE (via PubMed), Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. The search covered a publication period from inception to November 2015. RESULTS: Seventeen studies with a total of 2249 patients with pancreatic cancer were included in the tissue detection of this study. The meta-analysis indicated a significant association between mutant K-ras genes and overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.32-1.72, P < 0.001). Moreover, further subgroup analyses by ethnicity, publication year, therapy method, cancer resectability, and gene detection method all revealed that pancreatic cancer patients with the K-ras mutation had significantly poorer OS (P < 0.05). And results from four studies with 225 patients focused on plasma K-ras mutations enhanced such association (HR = 2.23, 95% CI 1.69-2.95, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: As a prediction of poor prognosis, the detection of K-ras mutations may be a useful prognostic factor for pancreatic cancer patients.

Effect of deep pressure input on parasympathetic system in patients with wisdom tooth surgery.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Deep pressure input is used to normalize physiological arousal due to stress. Wisdom tooth surgery is an invasive dental procedure with high stress levels, and an alleviation strategy is rarely applied during extraction. In this study, we investigated the effects of deep pressure input on autonomic responses to wisdom tooth extraction in healthy adults. METHODS: A randomized, controlled, crossover design was used for dental patients who were allocated to experimental and control groups that received treatment with or without deep pressure input, respectively. Autonomic indicators, namely the heart rate (HR), percentage of low-frequency (LF) HR variability (LF-HRV), percentage of high-frequency (HF) HRV (HF-HRV), and LF/HF HRV ratio (LF/HF-HRV), were assessed at the baseline, during wisdom tooth extraction, and in the posttreatment phase. RESULTS: Wisdom tooth extraction caused significant autonomic parameter changes in both groups; however, differential response patterns were observed between the two groups. In particular, deep pressure input in the experimental group was associated with higher HF-HRV and lower LF/HF-HRV during extraction compared with those in the control group. CONCLUSION: LF/HF-HRV measurement revealed balanced sympathovagal activation in response to deep pressure application. The results suggest that the application of deep pressure alters the response of HF-HRV and facilitates maintaining sympathovagal balance during wisdom tooth extraction.

Upper-Limb Rehabilitation With Adaptive Video Games for Preschool Children With Developmental Disabilities.

OBJECTIVE: This study used a novel device to make video games accessible to children with developmental disabilities (DD) by modifying the training software and interfaces to enhance motor training. METHOD: In the pretest-posttest design, 20 children (13 boys, 7 girls; mean age=5.2 yr) with DD received adaptive upper-limb motor rehabilitation consisting of fifteen 30-min individual sessions 3 times per week for 5 wk. RESULTS: Improvement in Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration and Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, Second Edition, scores for children with DD indicated significant differences between pretest and posttest. CONCLUSION: The rehabilitation device modified for the needs of children with DD is effective in improving visual-motor performance of children with DD.

Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among Escherichia coli urinary isolates from community-onset health care-associated urinary tract infection.

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is traditionally classified as community-acquired (CA) and hospital-acquired (HA). Community-onset health care-associated (HCA) infection is a new category that has gained increasing attention. The study aimed to compare the disk susceptibility of nonrepetitive Escherichia coli urinary isolates from HCA-UTI (n = 100) with that of E. coli isolates from CA-UTI (n = 85) and HA-UTI (n = 106). We found that the susceptibility pattern of HCA-UTI E. coli isolates was similar to that of HA-UTI E. coli isolates, but significantly different from that of CA-UTI E. coli isolates. In particular, the proportion of extended-spectrum ß-lactamase-producing isolates was significantly higher in HCA-UTI than that in CA-UTI (30.0% vs. 3.5%, p < 0.001). We recommend that when treating HCA-UTI, it is necessary to take urine cultures for susceptibility testing to guide definite antibiotic therapy.

Establishment of a cholangiocarcinoma risk evaluation model based on mucin expression levels.

BACKGROUND: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a highly malignant cancer, characterized by frequent mucin overexpression. MUC1 has been identified as a critical oncogene in the progression of CCA. However, the comprehensive understanding of how the mucin family influences CCA progression and prognosis is still incomplete. AIM: To investigate the functions of mucins on the progression of CCA and to establish a risk evaluation formula for stratifying CCA patients. METHODS: Single-cell RNA sequencing data from 14 CCA samples were employed for elucidating the roles of mucins, complemented by bioinformatic analyses. Subsequent validations were conducted through spatial transcriptomics and immunohistochemistry. The construction of a risk evaluation model utilized the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression algorithm, which was further confirmed by independent cohorts and diverse data types. RESULTS: CCA tumor cells with elevated levels of MUC1 and MUC4 showed activated nucleotide metabolic pathways and increased invasiveness. MUC5AC-high cells were found to promote CCA progression through WNT signaling. MUC5B-high cells exhibited robust cellular oxidation activities, leading to resistance against antitumoral treatments. MUC13-high cells were observed to secret chemokines, recruiting and transforming macrophages into the M2-polarized state, thereby suppressing antitumor immunity. MUC16-high cells were found to promote tumor progression through interleukin-1/nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells signaling upon interaction with neutrophils. Utilizing the expression levels of these mucins, a risk factor evaluation formula for CCA was developed and validated across multiple cohorts. CCA samples with higher risk factors exhibited stronger metastatic potential, chemotherapy resistance, and poorer prognosis. CONCLUSION: Our study elucidates the functional mechanisms through which mucins contribute to CCA development, and provides tools for risk stratification in CCA.

Kirschner wire migration from the right second rib to the right ventricle: a case report.

Migrations of orthopedic wires to cardiovascular system are uncommon and rarely reported. We report a case of right ventricle embolization with the Kirschner wire that was used for right 2nd rib osteosynthesis 2 years and 8 months previously in a 50-year-old man. The patient was asymptomatic and migration of the Kirschner wire was discovered by routine chest X-ray. An 8 cm-long Kirschner wire was successfully retrieved from the right ventricle. The treatment strategy for Kirschner wire removal from right ventricle is discussed.

Event-related brain potentials reveal enhancing and compensatory mechanisms during dual neurocognitive and cycling tasks.

BACKGROUND: Various neurocognitive tests have shown that cycling enhances cognitive performance compared to resting. Event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by an oddball or flanker task have clarified the impact of dual-task cycling on perception and attention. In this study, we investigate the effect of cycling on cognitive recruitment during tasks that involve not only stimulus identification but also semantic processing and memory retention. METHODS: We recruited 24 healthy young adults (12 males, 12 females; mean age = 22.71, SD = 1.97 years) to perform three neurocognitive tasks (namely color-word matching, arithmetic calculation, and spatial working memory) at rest and while cycling, employing a within-subject design with rest/cycling counterbalancing. RESULTS: The reaction time on the spatial working memory task was faster while cycling than at rest at a level approaching statistical significance. The commission error percentage on the color-word matching task was significantly lower at rest than while cycling. Dual-task cycling while responding to neurocognitive tests elicited the following results: (a) a greater ERP P1 amplitude, delayed P3a latency, less negative N4, and less positivity in the late slow wave (LSW) during color-word matching; (b) a greater P1 amplitude during memory encoding and smaller posterior negativity during memory retention on the spatial working memory task; and (c) a smaller P3 amplitude, followed by a more negative N4 and less LSW positivity during arithmetic calculation. CONCLUSION: The encoding of color-word and spatial information while cycling may have resulted in compensatory visual processing and attention allocation to cope with the additional cycling task load. The dual-task cycling and cognitive performance reduced the demands of semantic processing for color-word matching and the cognitive load associated with temporarily suspending spatial information. While dual-tasking may have required enhanced semantic processing to initiate mental arithmetic, a compensatory decrement was noted during arithmetic calculation. These significant neurocognitive findings demonstrate the effect of cycling on semantic-demand and memory retention-demand tasks.

The effect of direction on cursor moving kinematics.

There have been only few studies to substantiate the kinematic characteristics of cursor movement. In this study, a quantitative experimental research method was used to explore the effect of moving direction on the kinematics of cursor movement in 24 typical young persons using our previously developed computerized measuring program. The results of multiple one way repeated measures ANOVAs and post hoc LSD tests demonstrated that the moving direction had effects on average velocity, movement time, movement unit and peak velocity. Moving leftward showed better efficiency than moving rightward, upward and downward from the kinematic evidences such as velocity, movement unit and time. Moreover, the unique pattern of the power spectral density (PSD) of velocity (strategy for power application) explained why the smoothness was still maintained while moving leftward even under an unstable situation with larger momentum. Moreover, the information from this cursor moving study can guide us to relocate the toolbars and icons in the window interface, especially for individuals with physical disabilities whose performances are easily interrupted while controlling the cursor in specific directions.

[Relationship between Muscle Mass of Limbs and aGVHD in Patients with Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the correlation of limb muscle mass and acute graft-versus-host disease. METHODS: Clinical data from 144 patients treated by allo-HSCT in Guangzhou First People's Hospital were collected and analyzed retrospectively. The age, sex, diagnosis, donor age, sex of the donors, preparative regimen, ATG dose, HLA match, graft source, and number of infused stem cells of the patients were collected as baseline information. Meanwhile, bioelectrical impedance principle (BIA) was used to measure the limb muscle mass, body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio, upper arm muscle circumference, triceps skinfold thickness, and body fat rate of the patients before and after transplantation, so as to compare the changes of limb muscle mass and investigate its correlation with aGVHD. RESULTS: It was found that 61.11% of allo-HSCT patients showed muscle mass loss, and the proportion of male and female was 35.42% and 25.69%, respectively. There were reduction in the body weight, BMI, upper arm muscle circumference and muscle mass of limbs after transplantation as compared with those before transplantation (P<0.05). By comparing with the cumulative incidence of aGVHD between the patients in low muscle mass group and normal muscle mass group, it was found that the cumulative incidence of Ⅱ-Ⅳdegree aGVHD in patients with low muscle mass (30.38%) was higher than those with normal muscle mass (8.93%), which showed statistical difference (P<0.05). Univariate analysis showed that muscle mass, the sex of the donors, and preparative regimen were the influencing factors of aGVHD (P<0.05). Binary logistic regression showed that low muscle mass was the independent risk factor affecting aGVHD (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Patients treated by allo-HSCT shows a decline in muscle mass after transplantation, and the incidence of aGVHD is high in patients with low muscle mass. Therefore, the assessment of muscle quality in early stage in patients with HSCT can facilitate earlier detection of aGVHD.

Developmental Traits of Impulse Control Behavior in School Children under Controlled Attention, Motor Function, and Perception.

This research surveyed the characteristics of the developmental traits of impulse control behavior in children through parent-report questionnaires. After matching for gender and attention behavior, as well as controlling for variables (motor and perception) which might confound impulse control, 710 participants (355 girls and 355 boys; grade, 1-5; age, 7-12 years) were recruited from a database of 1763 children. Results demonstrated that there was a significant difference between grade 1 and grade 5 in impulse control. Conversely, no significant differences were found when comparing other grades. The present findings indicate that a striking development of impulse control occurs from grade 4 to 5. Moreover, the plateau of impulse control development from grade 1 to 4 implies that a long transition period is needed to prepare children to develop future impulse control. In conclusion, the age-dependent maturation associated with stage-wise development is a critical characteristic of impulse control development in school age children. Further discussions are made regarding this characteristic, such as from the perspective of frontal lobe development.

Resistance-induced brain activity changes during cycle ergometer exercises.

BACKGROUND: EEGs are frequently employed to measure cerebral activations during physical exercise or in response to specific physical tasks. However, few studies have attempted to understand how exercise-state brain activity is modulated by exercise intensity. METHODS: Ten healthy subjects were recruited for sustained cycle ergometer exercises at low and high resistance, performed on two separate days a week apart. Exercise-state EEG spectral power and phase-locking values (PLV) are analyzed to assess brain activity modulated by exercise intensity. RESULTS: The high-resistance exercise produced significant changes in beta-band PLV from early to late pedal stages for electrode pairs F3-Cz, P3-Pz, and P3-P4, and in alpha-band PLV for P3-P4, as well as the significant change rate in alpha-band power for electrodes C3 and P3. On the contrary, the evidence for changes in brain activity during the low-resistance exercise was not found. CONCLUSION: These results show that the cortical activation and cortico-cortical coupling are enhanced to take on more workload, maintaining high-resistance pedaling at the required speed, during the late stage of the exercise period.

Extrapancreatic Neuropathy Correlates with Early Liver Metastasis in Pancreatic Head Adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has a devastatingly poor prognosis, and most prognostic factors reflected the tumor stage more than the tumors' biology. The peripheral nerve plexus is densely distributed in the tumor micro-environment, and there are interactions between tumor cells and these nerves. Perineural invasion is an important risk factor for tumor recurrence and metastasis in pancreatic head adenocarcinoma, but the concrete types of extrapancreatic neuropathy and its role in predicting prognosis are still not clear. OBJECTIVE: To clarify the role of extrapancreatic neuropathy in the early postoperative liver metastasis and tumor-related mortality in pancreatic head adenocarcinoma and to study the mechanism of tumor recurrence and liver metastasis in pancreatic head adenocarcinoma. METHODS: We reported a retrospective study of 60 patients with resectable pancreatic head adenocarcinoma, all of whom accepted radical pancreaticoduodenectomy. Plexus pancreaticus capitalis II (PLX-II) was the representation of extrapancreatic plexus in our study, and all of these plexus had immunohistochemical staining. We defined the postoperative tumor recurrence and tumor-related mortality within 6 months as the early prognostic indicators and analyzed the pathological alterations in PLX-II among different prognosis groups. RESULTS: There were 18 patients suffering early postoperative liver metastasis; these two groups differed significantly in the average number of nerve trunks (P<0.001), the proportion of neuritis (P=0.003), the content of sympathetic nerve fibers (P=0.004) and parasympathetic nerve fibers (P<0.001) per unit area of PLX-II. There were 15 patients suffering early postoperative mortality, and there were significant differences between these two groups in the average number of nerve trunks (P<0.001), the proportion of neuritis (P=0.009), the content of sympathetic nerve fibers (P=0.023) and parasympathetic nerve fibers (P<0.001) per unit area of PLX-II. CONCLUSION: The patterns of extrapancreatic neuropathy could reflect the biological behavior of resectable pancreatic head adenocarcinoma, and the pathological features of PLX-II were closely related to early liver metastasis and mortality.

Pathological analysis of the superior mesenteric artery boundary in preoperative computed tomography of resectable pancreatic head adenocarcinoma.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the biological and prognostic implications of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) boundary on preoperative abdominal contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) for resectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head. A total of 121 patients treated over a 6-year period at Peking University Third Hospital (Beijing, China) were included in the present study. The pattern of the SMA boundary was investigated on preoperative CE-CT and detailed pathological analysis of the extrapancreatic plexus [the pancreatic head plexus II (PLX-II) located on the right edge of the SMA] was performed. The results revealed that the radiological SMA boundary was associated with the grade of parasympathetic neurogenesis (P=0.014) in PLX-II, and was predictive of postoperative disease-free survival (P=0.014) and liver metastasis (P=0.013). Therefore, it was proposed that extrapancreatic parasympathetic neurogenesis may account for the different patterns of the SMA boundary on preoperative abdominal CE-CT, and affect the prognosis, particularly for liver metastasis in resectable pancreatic head adenocarcinoma.

Hemispheric Lateralization of Event-Related Brain Potentials in Different Processing Phases during Unimanual Finger Movements.

Previous functional MRI and brain electrophysiology studies have studied the left-right differences during the tapping tasks and found that the activation of left hemisphere was more significant than that of right hemisphere. In this study, we wanted to delineate this lateralization phenomenon not only in the execution phase but also in other processing phases, such as early visual, pre-executive and post-executive phases. We have designed a finger-tapping task to delineate the left-right differences of event related potentials (ERPs) to right finger movement in sixteen right handed college students. The mean amplitudes of ERPs were analyzed to examine the left-right dominance of cortical activity in the phase of early visual process (75-120ms), pre-execution (175-260ms), execution (310-420ms) and post-execution (420-620ms). In the execution phase, ERPs at the left electrodes were significantly more pronounced than those at the right electrodes (F3 > F4, C3 > C4, P3 > P4, O1 > O2) under the situation without comparing the central electrodes (Fz, Cz, Pz, and Oz). No difference was found between left and right electrodes in other three phases except the C3 electrode still showed more dominant than C4 in the pre- and post-execution phase. In conclusion, the phenomenon of brain lateralization occur major in the execution phase. The central area also showed the lateralization in the pre- and post-execution to demonstrate its unique lateralized contributions to unilateral simple finger movements.

Predictive Value of Lymphocyte Count Changes on Checkpoint-inhibitor-related Pneumonitis in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer / 肿瘤防治研究

Objective To investigate the correlation of peripheral blood lymphocyte, T-cell, Th-cell, and Ts-cell counts with the development of checkpoint-inhibitor-related pneumonitis in NSCLC. Methods The clinical data of 85 patients with NSCLC treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) were retrospectively analyzed.Paired t-test was used to analyze lymphocyte changes.ROC curves were utilized to analyze predictive performance.The Spearman correlation coefficient test was conducted to analyze the linear relationship between lymphocyte changes and CIP grade. Results A statistically significant decrease in lymphocyte, T-cell, Th-cell, and Ts-cell counts from the baseline was observed in patients at the onset of CIP (P < 0.05), whereas no such change was observed in the control group.ROC curve analysis revealed AUCs of 0.867, 0.843, 0.865, and 0.843 for lymphocyte, T-cell, Th-cell, and Ts-cell counts, respectively.A linear relationship was found between the percentage decrease in lymphocyte, T-cell, and Ts-cell counts from the baseline and the severity of CIP (P < 0.05). Conclusion Decreased lymphocyte, T-cell, Th-cell, and Ts-cell counts have a predictive value for the development of CIP, and the lymphocyte count change has the greatest predictive value.The percentage decrease in lymphocyte, T-cell, and Ts-cell counts from the baseline is correlated with the severity of CIP.

Atypical temporal activation pattern and central-right brain compensation during semantic judgment task in children with early left brain damage.

In this study we investigated the event-related potentials (ERPs) during the semantic judgment task (deciding if the two Chinese characters were semantically related or unrelated) to identify the timing of neural activation in children with early left brain damage (ELBD). The results demonstrated that compared with the controls, children with ELBD had (1) competitive accuracy and reaction time in the semantic judgment task, (2) weak operation of the N400, (3) stronger, earlier and later compensational positivities (referred to the enhanced P200, P250, and P600 amplitudes) in the central and right region of the brain to successfully engage in semantic judgment. Our preliminary findings indicate that temporally postlesional reorganization is in accordance with the proposed right-hemispheric organization of speech after early left-sided brain lesion. During semantic processing, the orthography has a greater effect on the children with ELBD, and a later semantic reanalysis (P600) is required due to the less efficient N400 at the former stage for semantic integration.