Cortical plasticity associated with stuttering therapy

Neuroimaging studies have indicated that persistent developmental stuttering (PDS) may be associated both with an abnormality in white matter of left-hemispheric speech areas and a right-hemispheric hyperactivity. The latter may compensate for the deficient structural connectivity in the left hemisphere. To investigate the effects of stuttering therapy on brain activity nine male adults with PDS underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and within 12 weeks after fluency shaping therapy. Brain response differences during overt sentence reading before and after therapy were assessed by utilizing random effects analyses. After therapy, a more widespread activation was observed in frontal speech and language regions and temporal areas of both hemispheres, particularly and more pronounced on the left side. Interestingly, distinct posttreatment left-sided activation increases were located directly adjacent to a recently detected area of white matter anomaly [M. Sommer, M.A. Koch, W. Paulus, C. Weiller, C. Buchel (2002). Disconnection of speech-relevant brain areas in persistent developmental stuttering. The Lancet, 360, 380-383] suggesting that fluency shaping techniques reorganize neuronal communication between left-sided speech motor planning, motor execution, and temporal areas. Hence, a therapeutic mechanism can be assumed to remodel brain circuitry close to the source of the dysfunction instead of reinforcing compensation via homologous contralateral brain networks. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about and be able to: (1) describe brain activation changes detected shortly after fluency-shaping therapy; (2) identify left-hemispheric regions where a (re)functionalization after fluency-shaping therapy seems to occur adjacent to a recently described abnormal white matter region in PDS subjects; and (3) discuss how an effective cerebral compensation mechanism for stuttering could work.     

Intact emotion-induced recognition bias in neuropsychological patients with executive control deficits

In recognition memory tasks, emotionally negative words are judged more often as "old" relative to emotionally neutral words, suggesting a shift in response bias. We wondered whether this bias shift was due to the flexible regulation of executive control during memory retrieval. To address this question, we investigated individuals with high variability in executive control functions. As expected, we observed that emotional word meaning did indeed have a strong influence on the bias toward responding "old," independent of recognition accuracy and overall response bias. However, these effects were uncorrelated with executive control, as measured by the Trail Making Test, and were fully intact, even in a sample of hospitalized neurological patients with severe executive dysfunctions, some of whom had marked damage in fronto-thalamo-striatal networks. Having concluded that the emotion-induced bias must develop on different grounds, we went on to discuss alternative explanations.     

Effects of pointing direction and direction predictability on event-related lateralizations of the EEG

In two experiments, we investigated hemispheric electroencephalography (EEG) differences in 9(12) healthy volunteers during pointing to lateral and central targets. The questions addressed were whether horizontal pointing direction and the predictability of pointing direction modulated hemispheric differences (event-related lateralizations of the EEG = ERLs). To vary pointing direction predictability, targets were displayed either randomly at one of nine different positions on a screen (random) or at the same horizontal position in five subsequent trials (sequenced) while vertical positions varied randomly. Event-related lateralizations (ERLs) varied with pointing direction. This was true across changes in target eccentricity and pointing distance. Foci of the ERLs were in premotor and posterior parietal cortex, which might reflect the critical involvement of these areas in the control of visually guided reaching. Direction predictability reduced the parietal and premotor ERL before pointing onset, probably reflecting a lesser effort in visuomotor transformation. Predictability also added an overlying N2pc component to the early ERL after target onset and increased direction effects during movement.     

The role of motion direction selective extrastriate regions in reading: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

Why reading ability is correlated with motion processing ability is perplexing. Activity in motion direction processing regions (Area V5/MT+) was perturbed by means of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to examine its effect on reading. A functional probe (significant shortening of the motion aftereffect) was used to identify Area V5/MT+. Right-handed participants (8 m, 8 f) received three 7.5 min blocks of rTMS, after which two phonological and one orthographic reading tasks were administered. Application of rTMS to Area V5/MT+ (as compared to a non-rTMS baseline) significantly decreased performance only during non-word naming. The pattern of naming errors and the absence of deficits on the second phonological task were not consistent with a role for Area V5/MT+ in phonological decoding. Instead, its role in reading may be limited to image stabilization and/or letter localization.     

Religion and medicine: How are they related?

This paper provides a comprehensive and dynamic profile of religion-medicine interrelationships. This profile is drawn from the respective characteristics of religion and medicine, as well as from historic and contemporary literature regarding their interconnections. Six symbiotic functions are identified and discussed with respect to their bearing on clinical practice, medical education, and research.The authors thank Drs. Chester R. Burns, Thomas H. Murray, and Ronald A. Carson for their comments on drafts of this paper.     

Possession as role-taking

The paper discusses the psychological function of mythical roles in the genesis and maintenance of the possessional experience. The Devil as a personification of the evil provides a role which is possible to recognize and even interiorize. Theemotional psychological dynamics interacts with thecognitive content provided by the religious world-view. A case is analyzed and related to prior scientific studies in the field bordering psychopathology and pastoral experience.