Search

INTRODUCTION. Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children and adolescents but there are hardly any studies on the incidence and temporal evolution. AIM. To describe recent trends (2002-2009) in the incidence of hospitalization for TBI in children and adolescents in the region of Valencia. PATIENTS AND METHODS. Emergency admissions were identified in hospitals in the Valencian Health Agency from patients aged 0-19 years with a diagnosis of TBI (codes of the International Classification of Diseases 800, 801, 803, 804 and 850 to 854) during 2002 to 2009. The severity was classified using the fifth digit of these codes and the crude and standardized rates per 100,000 children were estimated stratified by age, sex and severity. RESULTS. From 2002 to 2009 a total of 5,504 TBI in children up to age of 19 years were hospitalized (mild: 92.9%; moderate to severe: 7.1%). In-hospital mortality was 0.6% for mild TBI and 15.7% for moderate-severe. Crude rates of mild head injury per 100,000 children fell from 85.9 to 55.4 in 2002-2009 (boys: 114.1 to 68.3, girls: 56.1 to 41.8), especially in the 15-19 years. For moderate-severe TBI, rates decreased from 5.73 to 2.78 per 100,000 in 2002-2009 (boys: 8.69 to 3.67; girls: 2.59 to 1.84). CONCLUSIONS. The incidence of pediatric TBI in the Valencia region has decreased significantly in the period 2002-2009, but their medical, legal, societal and family consequences still represents a substantial burden.

Acquired brain injury is a heterogeneous clinical concept that goes beyond the limits of the classical medical view, which tends to define processes and diseases on the grounds of a single causation. Although in the medical literature it appears fundamentally associated to traumatic brain injury, there are many other causes and management is similar in all of them, during the post-acute and chronic phases, as regards the measures to be taken concerning rehabilitation and attention to dependence. Yet, despite being an important health issue, today we do not have a set of diagnostic criteria or a classification for this condition. This is a serious handicap when it comes to carrying out epidemiological studies, designing specific care programmes and comparing results among different programmes and centres. Accordingly, the Extremadura Acquired Brain Injury Health Care Plan working group has drawn up these proposed diagnostic criteria, definition and classification. The proposal is intended to be essentially practical, its main purpose being to allow correct identification of the cases that must be attended to and to optimise the use of neurorehabilitation and attention to dependence resources, thereby ensuring attention is provided on a fair basis.

INTRODUCTION. The current batteries such as the Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests (BRB-N) for evaluating cognitive decline in patients with multiple sclerosis are complex and time-consuming. AIM. To obtain normative values and validate a new battery. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Four neuropsychological tests were finally included (episodic memory, the Symbol-Digit Modalities Test, a category fluency test, and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test). Normative values (overall and by age group) were derived by administering the battery to healthy subjects (5th percentile was the limit of normal). External validity was explored by comparison with the BRB-N. The new battery was also administered to a subsample after 4 weeks to assess reproducibility. RESULTS. To provide normative data, 1036 healthy subjects were recruited. The mean completion time was 18.5 ± 5.2 minutes. For the 229 subjects who were administered the new battery and the BRB-N, no statistically significant differences were found except for mean completion time (19 ± 4 vs 25 ± 5 minutes). In the reproducibility study, there were no significant differences except in the memory tests. CONCLUSION. The scores on the new battery and the BRB-N were strongly correlated although the shorter completion time and ease of administration could make the new battery preferable in clinical practice.

Music is a very powerful multimodal stimulus that transmits visual, auditory and motor information to our brain, which in turn has a specific network for processing it, consisting in the frontotemporoparietal regions. This activation can be very beneficial in the treatment of several syndromes and diseases, either by rehabilitating or by stimulating altered neuronal connections. We also review the peculiarities of the musician's brain and we look at how the brain adapts according to the needs that must be met in order to improve musical performance.

Music is present in every culture and, from the earliest ages, we all have the basic capacities needed to process it, although this processing takes place in different modules that involve different regions of the brain. Do these regions form paths that are specific to musical processing? As we shall see, the production and perception of music engage a large part of our cognitive capabilities, involving areas of the auditory cortex and the motor cortex. On the other hand, music produces emotional responses within us that involve other cortical and subcortical areas. Are they the same paths as the ones engaged in the processing of emotions in general? We review the existing literature on these questions, as well as the different musical neurological disorders that exist, which range from musicogenic epilepsy to amusia, together with the different possible means of treatment.

Introduction: With the growth of cognitive science, the study of the cognitive components involved in solving tests to assess intelligence become especially significant. From this perspective, the g factor is conceived as the representative of the operation of high-level cognitive processes that control the computational programmes of the brain. Different names have been used to denominate the cognitive processes that underlie the g factor: control processes, executive functioning, executive control or executive functions., Development: We review the relationship between intelligence, on the one hand, and working memory and the executive functions construct, on the other. Furthermore, the article also reviews the relationship between intelligence and the prefrontal cortex, as its possible neuroanatomical substrate., Conclusions: The studies that were surveyed offer different answers to the question of whether intelligence and the executive functions are one and the same thing, the most widely accepted hypothesis being the one that sees intelligence and the executive functions as overlapping in some aspects but not in others.

Introduction: The assessment of the cognitive impairment in the multiple sclerosis disease is one of the most relevant challenges nowadays. An essential objective is to obtain diverse approaches that allow valuing objectively this impairment and its correlation with physiological variables., Aim: To analyze the possible modulations in physiological components of the information processing (ERPs) related with an attentional deficit in diverse classes of patients with multiple sclerosis., Subjects and Methods: 17 patients with remitting-relapsing multiple sclerosis, 9 patients with benign multiple sclerosis and 19 healthy subjects participated in the study. Behavioral performance in a visuo-spatial task (Posner paradigm) and later, an auditory oddball test was carried out where electroencephalography signal was registered to obtain ERPs. Correlation analyses were calculated between patient variables (EDSS or disease duration) and psychophysiological variables., Results: A delay in the reaction time during the development of the Posner task and a delay in the latency of the component P3 during the realization of the oddball task were found in both groups of patient with multiple sclerosis., Conclusion: The data obtained in this experiment confirm the presence of attentional impairment in patients with diverse forms of multiple sclerosis. The exclusive modulation of the P3 latency component suggests that the impairment in these patients, at the beginning of the disease, is localized at a central level of cognitive processing and is product of the demyelinating process.

Aims: The aims of this paper is to demonstrate the existence of neuropsychological disorders in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and to perform an in depth study of the cognitive functioning of the prefrontal lobes., Patients and Methods: A neuropsychological study of 14 patients with ALS was conducted using an extensive battery of tests and were compared with a group of 14 healthy controls. Both groups were homogeneous as regards age, sex, education and manual dominance. In this clinical and research study, as well as the neuropsychological variables (subtest of the Barcelona PIEN Test neuropsychological battery), we also took the evolution of the disease, the age and neurological clinical features of the patients suffering from ALS into account., Results: We found neuropsychological disorders in the ALS patients that were centred, either directly or indirectly, on functions of the prefrontal lobe, and in particular of the dorsolateral and premotor cortices, which had already been observed in other research work. No memory disorders were found, something which is usually mentioned in studies about neuropsychological disorders in this type of patients., Conclusions: Apart from the primary motor zones affected in ALS, there appears to be a degenerative process in most of the frontal lobe, and there is a need for longitudinal studies of the possible progressive disorders of the frontal lobe in these patients. This is difficult, since these patients end up with serious neurological alterations which prevent a correct neuropsychological exploration from being carried out cognitively, and hence no conclusions can be drawn either

Objective: Neuropsychological investigations over the past 20 years have shown the high prevalence of cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis, although there are still large gaps. In this article we review current concepts regarding the different types of neuropsychiatric disorders, their physiopathology, diagnosis and treatment., Development: We present a classification of the most important types of cognitive and psychiatric alterations in multiple sclerosis, and their physiopathology. We review the methods used in diagnosis, follow up and assessment of these patients. Finally, we analyze the current treatment available for each of these disorders., Conclusions: Although considerable advances have been made in understanding the neuropsychological disorders occurring in multiple sclerosis, there are still many questions to be answered. There is a need for a unified, agreed, validated battery of neuropsychological tests for the study of specific cognitive deficits in multiple sclerosis so that results may be compared. There is also a lack of biological markers which would help in diagnosis and prognosis. Finally the design and carrying out of clinical trials in the search for specific, effective drugs for the treatment of neuroconductual disorders of multiple sclerosis is necessary.

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating and inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) with a clear proved genetic susceptibility. The real frequency and clinical features of familial MS is although not well established in Spain., Objective: We studied the clinical and CSF features of familial MS (FMS) patients in comparison with the rest of our patients., Patients and Methods: We reviewed 308 definite MS patients looking for patients with other familial members with MS. We analyzed clinical characteristics (age, age at onset, sex, evolution time, evolution course, symptoms at onset, disability measured by EDSS scale) and IgG synthesis measured by Tibbling-Link index., Results: We found 23 patients (10 men and 13 women) in 18 independent families with at least other family member diagnosed of definite MS (7.47% of our total MS population). Age and age at onset were no different from non FMS cases. The clinical course was relapsing-remitting in 21 out of 23 FMS cases and secondary progressive in two. No primary progressive cases were found among FMS. At onset the symptom most frequently found in FMS was optic neuritis. Mean EDSS score was lower in FMS cases in comparison with the rest of cases. Link index was increase in 93.7% of patients with FMS., Conclusion: In comparison with non familiar forms FMS patients in Spain, present more often remitting courses, are less disabled, optical neuritis is more frequently seen as onset symptom and IgG synthesis is more often increased.