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Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a significant impairment of social and interpersonal functioning. Several neuroimaging studies have evaluated social cognition, i.e. how people with MDD process, store and analyze information about other people and social situations., Methods: We conducted a focused review and selected manuscript published until August 2016 indexed on PubMed and PsycINFO, searching for the following keywords: "major depressive disorder", "major depression", "unipolar depression", "clinical depression", "fMRI", "emotion comprehension", "emotion perception", "affect comprehension", "affect perception", "facial expression", "prosody", "theory of mind", "mentalizing", "empathy"., Results: During depressive episodes, patients with MDD show a difference pattern of neural response during emotion processing, compared to healthy controls. Many studies show that those alterations disappear once the acute episodes remit. However, other studies show that the alterations may persist during remission periods. Limits. The studies evaluate only one component of social cognition and not all studies include a control group., Conclusions: Neurobiological research supports a role of social cognition deficits in MDD, especially for what pertains interpersonal functioning, this suggesting the need for further research and the possibility for treatment implications.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate cortical activation patterns in patients with Parkinson's disease during a relatively complex motor task., Materials and Methods: Seven patients (six men and one woman) with lateralised akinetic-rigid Parkinson's disease underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain with a 1.5-T magnet. Finger tapping was chosen as a motor task. The control group included 11 volunteers (six men and five women) with no neurological disease., Results: Patients showed hyperactivity of the ipsilateral and contralateral motor cortex associated with bilateral over-activation of the parietal cortex during movement of the affected hand. In some cases, there was a lack of activation of the pre-motor and supplementary motor areas whereas, when present, activation in these areas was greater during movement of the healthy hand. Finally, activation of the occipital cortex was found in all patients as a result of their tendency to control movement visually., Conclusions: Results of this study confirm a re-organisation of cortical circuits due to subcortical damage in patient's with Parkinson's disease.

Unlabelled: Alzheimer's disease (AD) represents the most frequent cause of senile dementia in Western countries. The disease has a slow onset and gradual progress. Over the past few years considerable importance has been attributed to the diagnostic techniques of brain imaging able to highlight morphological and functional images. EEG mapping is one of the most widely used methods., Methods: The authors evaluated the characteristics of EEG mapping in relation to frequency and amplitude in a group of elderly patients with AD and in a group of healthy elderly control subjects. The former group consisted of 10 patients with AD aged between 65 and 83 years old. The control group included 10 healthy subjects who were matched for age and sex., Results: The spectral analysis of EEG signals relating to frequency and amplitude showed a slowing down of underlying activity in AD patients, with a frequency between 1 and 4 c/sec, amplitudes below 5 microW and no arrest reaction. In healthy subjects spectral analysis showed a signal percentage colocated at a frequency of between 8 and 13 c/sec in relation to frequency., Conclusions: In view of these results, the authors recommend the use of EEG mapping to complete the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in the aged.

Background: Alzheimer's disease affects around 500,000 persons in Italy and its diagnosis remains essentially clinical. Our aim was to contribute to the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by mapping auditory evoked potentials (AEP). Evoked potentials represent the electric response of the CNS to an external stimulus and can be represented as a sequence of waves. Brain mapping allows a chromotopogram to be compiled showing chromatic maps., Methods: A group of 12 patients were studied aged between 68 and 84 years old who were referred to our attention at the Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology at Catania University and the A.O. Cannizzaro, Geriatrics Unit. All patients completed an assessment form (MM-SE, ADAS) and underwent brain NMR and AEP., Results: These tests enabled us to identify two types of patients (Group A and Group B) based on the responses shown. The overall evaluation of results revealed that patients with Alzheimer-type dementia present an anomalous cortical neurogenic response to mapped AEP, and that patients in Group A showed anomalous wave morphology, latency and localisation and asymmetric impregnation. The data gathered in this study did not confirm any specific characteristics of AEP given that similar anomalies are found in metabolic dysfunction syndromes and demyelination pathologies., Conclusions: However, while it does not constitute a specific technique for screening against Alzheimer's disease, the mapping of AEP may contribute to the diagnosis of this disease.

We give a description of stereotaxic methodology as originally elaborated by the S.te Anne Hospital School in Paris, and successively modified and utilised in Niguarda Hospital in Milan. Performing a stereotactic arteriography and ventriculography should allow the appreciation of minimal modification of vascular anatomy, identification of sulci and gyri by utilising stereoscopic technique and the proportional grid, based on bicommissural line, evaluation of the morphological abnormalities and their precise reconstruction in the intracranial space. Anatomical information obtained by this kind of examinations are essential for intracerebral stereo-EEG investigation and for planning surgical procedure.

We have studied the rat under chronic treatment with lithium carbonate and rubidium chloride both given ip. For a four week period we have recorded, once a week, weight, rectal temperature, tail-flick, motor co-ordination and general activity in a one-arm radial maze and in a Boissier-Simon table. At the end of the fourth week surface (SEEG) and deep EEGrams (DEEG: hippocampus, amygdala) were recorded from treated and control animals. FFT (Hanning window) was performed both for SEEG and DEEG. The findings are: 1) No changes in weight, rectal temperature, tail-flick and motor coordination (rotarod). 2) In the one-arm maze and in the Boissier-Simon table rubidium is in contrast to the effects of lithium, it causes increased activity and aggression 3) the EEGrams were analyzed by means of FFT as power in preselected bands of frequency. The results, on the whole, suggest, since these two ions have opposite effects on brain norepinephrine metabolism, that they may be useful in the treatment of PMD.

The concurrence of gelastic (laughing) seizures, hypothalamic hamartoma and precocious puberty constitutes a well defined epileptic syndrome in children; moreover mental retardation, neuropsychological deterioration and behavioral disorders have been often observed in these patients. In two cases we studied by means of MRI the appearance and the site of the hamartoma (in the posterior part of the hypothalamus with extension toward the third ventricle). The EEG study was performed by means of repeated recordings, of Computed EEG Topography (CET) and of Ambulatory EEG (A-EEG): in both patients during interictal periods paroxysmal EEG discharges prevailing in temporal or fronto-temporal regions and slight abnormalities of the background activity in the same areas were detected. Laughing seizures were recorded in each patient particularly by means of A-EEG: in case 1 bursts of high-voltage activity ("theta" waves) followed by depression of the background rhythm and by irregular spike discharges located in left temporal region were observed; in patient 2 irregular generalised spike discharges followed by slow waves or by depression of the background activity were seen. The presence of local abnormalities in both patients can support the hypothesis that the cortex, especially of the temporal anterior lobe, is involved in the origin of the laughing seizures. The significance of the mechanisms of secondary generalization as regards the seriousness of the epilepsy and of the mental impairment in these patients is also suggested.

Short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials by the stimulation of the median nerve at the wrist, were recorded in six patients (four with cerebral tumors and two with post-trauma lesions). The electrodes were placed on the scalp following the 10-20 International System. A reference electrode was placed on earlobe contralateral to the site of the stimulation. Eleven normal subjects were used as control (mean age 64.4 +/- 12.05). We used the Brain-Surveyor-Basis Trade system which allowed us to elaborate the results by coloured mapping through linear interpolation of signal amplitudes. The following parameters were investigated: peak latencies of the N13, N20, P22, N30 waves; amplitudes of the post-rolandic P14-N20, N20-P25, pre-rolandic P22-N30 components and the central conduction time N13-N20 (CCT). The evaluation of latencies was not significant in determining the lesion site. On the contrary, the evaluation of amplitudes revealed expressive asymmetry, though it did not define the nature of alteration (increase or decrease due to lesion), and the correlation between these variations and the site of the lesion. The authors discussed the possibility that amplitude abnormalities in patients with tumors were related either to the tumors and/or drug effects.

The MLRs of 20 normal hearing adults were recorded by cerebral mapping. In regard to the Pa and Na waves, it is suggested that two different generation sites exist because of the different spatio-temporal distribution of the waves over the scalp. It is demonstrated that amplitudes measured by the "grand average" technique are constantly lower than those obtained with the manual determination, and they conclude that manual determination represents the most reliable method in order to calculate waves amplitude. Finally, it is suggested that, due to the different generation sites for Pa and Na waves and to the uneven distribution of the Na wave over the scalp, Pa amplitude should be measured from the baseline and not from the Na negative deflection. Moreover, in 14 cases, when one ear was stimulated the Pa wave obtained at most recording points was significantly larger than the one recorded contralaterally.

This study reports the results obtained by an Electroencephalographic screening of 450 HIV-seropositive patients, belonging to different stages of infection. The major bioelectrical changes of cerebral activity were evident in AIDS group (87.2%) and in ARC group (64.5%), whereas mild abnormalities were present in LAS group (38.8%) and in asymptomatic infection (19.2%), often without any evidence of neuropsychological impairment. Therefore, we emphasize the usefulness and the sensibility of Electroencephalography and, in particular, of Electroencephalography coupled with Computerized Spectral Analysis with the aim of identifying the subclinical stages of AIDS Dementia Complex.

The difference between age regression and revification is pointed out and the neurophysiological and psychological bases of hypermnesia of the past are discussed. Moreover, mental, neurological, somatic and visceral symptomatology of revification, the usual techniques to obtain it and its therapeutical usefulness are described. Possible artifacts of age regression and methods to avoid then are then presented.

In chronic free-moving cats unilateral, low frequency, long duration stimulation of the caudate nucleus causes a significant reduction of food intake. The effects are greatest at the beginning of the stimulation. On cessation of stimulation the animals take enough food to compensate for that lost during the time of stimulation. Results are discussed either considering interrelationships between striatum and lateral hypothalamus, either regarding recent viewpoints distinguishing two striatal compartments: dorsal or "non limbic" striatal region and ventral or "limbic" striatal region.

The origin of the vestibulospinal projection in the toad has been investigated by using the method of the retrograde axonal transport of HRP injected at various levels of the spinal cord. The vestibulospinal projection, in this species, was found to be somatotopically organized, since neurons projecting to the cervical segments of the spinal cord were located within the rostromedial part of the ventral vestibular nucleus and those neurons projecting to the lumbosacral segments of the spinal cord were located within the caudolateral part of that nucleus. This pattern of organization of the vestibulospinal projection in amphibia is similar to that described in mammals and birds.