Presurgical Coping, Depression, and Quality of Life in Persons with Parkinson's Disease

This study describes utilization of coping strategies and evaluates the interaction between coping strategies, depression, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who are being considered for neurosurgical intervention. Eighty patients (mean age 61.7 years) with PD being evaluated for possible deep brain stimulation completed self-report instruments of coping strategies (Coping Responses Inventory), depression (Beck Depression Inventory), and disease-specific QOL (Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39). Analyses showed that patients with PD cope with the acute stressor of approaching neurosurgery through a variety of strategies, but particularly avoidant and behavioral strategies. When the correlated but apparently opposing effects of cognitive and behavioral strategies were teased apart, greater use of cognitive strategies was associated with more severe depressive symptomatology (and poorer QOL), while greater use of behavioral strategies appeared to be associated with less depression. Depressive symptomatology, in turn, was associated with poorer QOL. However, coping had minimal direct association with QOL. From this it was concluded that patients with advanced PD generate a variety of coping responses to an acute stressor such as surgery, and the use of behavioral strategies, in particular seeking of alternative enjoyable activities, may be associated with better mood if salutary effects are not overwhelmed by less helpful cognitive coping techniques. The minimization of depressive symptomatology, in turn, is associated with better QOL.     

Brain Oxidative Damage Following Acute Immobilization and Mild Emotional Stress

We studied the role of free radicals on brain oxidative damage in rats after acute immobilization stress (restraint) and mild emotional stress (handling). To investigate brain oxidative damage, CuZn and Mn dependent superoxide dismutase (CuZn SOD, Mn SOD) activities, lipid peroxidation (TBARs), Na ⁺ K ⁺ ATPase activity, protein carbonyl (PrC), and reduced and oxidized glutathione (GSH, GSSG) levels were measured in the cerebral cortex (CTX), hippocampus (HIP), and striatum (ST) of the animals after the two different stress stimuli. Because stress produces abnormalities in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the intensity of the two stress conditions were measured by plasmatic corticosteroid (COR) levels: particularly, COR levels doubled in handled rats and increased 15-fold in restrained animals. The SOD activities increased in CTX and decreased in HIP of the handled rats, while in ST a significant decrease in handled animals but an increase in restrained animals occurred. TBARs, GSH, and GSSG levels remained unchanged, while an index of glutathione redox decreased significantly in ST of handled animals and in CTX of restrained ones. Na ⁺ K ⁺ ATPase activity increased significantly in the HIP and ST of both groups of stressed rats. The stress induced a remarkable increase in PrC levels in all studied cerebral areas. These findings provide evidence to support the idea that stress produces oxidants but that the oxidative damage in stress differs in cerebral areas and could contribute to the degenerative mechanism of aging.     

Tool use in left brain damage and Alzheimer's disease: What about function and manipulation knowledge?

Tool use disorders are usually associated with difficulties in retrieving function and manipulation knowledge. Here, we investigate tool use (Real Tool Use, RTU), function (Functional Association, FA) and manipulation knowledge (Gesture Recognition, GR) in 17 left‐brain‐damaged (LBD) patients and 14 AD patients (Alzheimer disease). LBD group exhibited predicted deficit on RTU but not on FA and GR while AD patients showed deficits on GR and FA with preserved tool use skills. These findings question the role played by function and manipulation knowledge in actual tool use.     

脑死与放弃治疗

符合医学标准又为亲属认定已死亡者,理应放弃治疗;符合脑死亡标准,应说服亲属同意作放弃治疗决策;对已确无救治希望,或虽经抢救治疗必然发生植物生存状态的极重病例,或已是植物生存状态者,也应作出放弃治疗的决策,除遵循医学原则和生命的价值、伦理原则外,要充分尊重病重的意志。放弃治疗的决策还应考虑到亲属的心理承受问题。     

脑激活定律

用物理学的观点在系统水平上讨论脑内功能子系统的脑区激活及相互作用。引入一些参量描述脑功能特性 ,并且根据现有实验事实提出脑激活的四条定律。     

From Maclean's Triune Brain Concept to the Conflict Systems Neurobehavioral Model: The Subjective Basis of Moral and Spiritual Consciousness

This paper builds upon a critically clarified statement of the triune brain concept to set out the conflict systems neurobehavioral model. The model defines the reciprocal algorithms (rules of procedure) of behavior from evolved brain structure. The algorithms are driven by subjectively experienced behavioral tension as the self-preservational programming, common to our ancestral vertebrates, frequently tugs and pulls against the affectional program-ming of our mammalian legacy. The yoking ( zygon ) of the dual algorithmic dynamic accounts for the emergence of moral and spiritual consciousness as manifested in the universal norm of reciprocity and in the work of such thinkersas Martin Buber and Paul Tillich.     

Traumatic brain injury: Implications for practice

This article presents a brief overview of the prevalence and history of traumatic brain injury (TBI), discusses the multidimensional effects of TBI, describes the current focus of TBI rehabilitation, and summarizes outcomes from (re)habilitation work with individuals with traumatic brain injury. The importance of this critical area to rehabilitation personnel is discussed, along with suggestions for future research and evaluation studies.     

神经元活动的时相同步与脑功能整合

从大脑整合的角度分析心理的神经机制。神经元之间的交互和动态联结而构成神经集合被认为是每一个认知活动的基础。然而这一交互作用的具体性质,即脑整合的机制尚未明确。通过对有关实验结果的分析,认为神经元活动的时相同步可能是脑整合的机制。     

共情的认知神经研究回顾

共情是指个体对他人情绪和想法的感受及理解,它在人类个体和社会的发展中起到了重要作用。近年来,脑成像技术为研究共情的神经基础提供了有力的技术支持,发现了共情的关键功能脑区。基础与临床的实验证据表明,更好地理解共情的神经机制对于孤独症、反社会人格等精神障碍有重要的意义。该文对相关的研究进行了综述并对未来可能的研究方向提出了展望     

Perceptual biases in processing facial identity and emotion

Normal observers demonstrate a bias to process the left sides of faces during perceptual judgments about identity or emotion. This effect suggests a right cerebral hemisphere processing bias. To test the role of the right hemisphere and the involvement of configural processing underlying this effect, young and older control observers and patients with right hemisphere damage completed two chimeric faces tasks (emotion judgment and face identity matching) with both upright and inverted faces. For control observers, the emotion judgment task elicited a strong left-sided perceptual bias that was reduced in young controls and eliminated in older controls by face inversion. Right hemisphere damage reversed the bias, suggesting the right hemisphere was dominant for this task, but that the left hemisphere could be flexibly recruited when right hemisphere mechanisms are not available or dominant. In contrast, face identity judgments were associated most clearly with a vertical bias favouring the uppermost stimuli that was eliminated by face inversion and right hemisphere lesions. The results suggest these tasks involve different neurocognitive mechanisms. The role of the right hemisphere and ventral cortical stream involvement with configural processes in face processing is discussed.