Cerebellum and apraxia

Classical tenits posit that the role of the cerebellum is limited to pure sensorimotor control. However, evidence from clinical and imaging studies shows that the cerebellum is crucially involved in nonmotor cognitive and affective functions. Schmahmann and Sherman (1998) [1] introduced the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS), characterised by executive, visuo-spatial, affective and linguistic impairments caused by cerebellar pathology. Apraxia, as a planning, organisation and execution disorder of a skilled motor action (not caused by motor, sensory or intellectual impairment) [2], may be regarded to form part of the executive cluster of CCAS. Indeed, several anatomoclinical studies have confirmed involvement of the cerebellum in at least some types of apraxia, which adds to the nonmotor role of the cerebellum. According to Hugo Liepmann [3], apraxia is thought to evolve from a disruption of the creation, activation or retrieval of movement formulae. These formulae represent the idea of a movement as a visual or acoustic image and are stored in the left parietal lobe. The left prefrontal area subsequently associates these formulae with an inherently stored innervatory pattern to transfer the information to the left primary motor areas. The corpus callosum transfers this information to the right motor cortex if the movement is to be executed by the left limb [3]. Based on some recent clinical evidence we hypothesize that the cerebellum forms an intrinsic part of this connectionist model of Liepmann

Soru

Ġabra ta’ poeżiji u proża li tinkludi: Min jixtieq id-deni ‘l ġaru jiġih f’daru ta’ L. C. – Qalbieni! ta’ Dun Karm – Il-gideb għomru qasir ta’ T. Z. – Frak – Għasel Malti – Malta ġawhra tal-Mediterran ta’ D. K. – Soru ta’ D. K.N/

High-Performance, Wearable Thermoelectric Generator Based on a Highly Aligned Carbon Nanotube Sheet

A high-performance, wearable thermoelectric generator (TEG) was fabricated with a highly aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) sheet. The aligned CNT sheet exhibits extraordinary electrical conductivity compared to disordered CNT sheets and also can be directly fabricated as a continuous TEG without metal electrode interconnects. This provides a significant reduction in contact resistance between TE legs and electrodes compared to traditional TEGs, resulting in higher power output. In addition, the continuity of the module without any disconnected parts provides high degrees of mechanical stability and durability. This robust and scalable approach to flexible TEG fabrication paves the way for CNT applications in lightweight, flexible, and wearable electronics

Cerebellar Activation During Simple and Complex Bimanual Coordination:an Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) Meta-analysis

Bimanual coordination is an important part of everyday life and recruits a large neural network, including the cerebellum. The specific role of the cerebellum in bimanual coordination has not yet been studied in depth, although several studies indicate a differential role of the anterior and posterior cerebellum depending on the complexity of the coordination. An activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis was used combining the data of several functional MRI studies involving bimanual coordination tasks with varying complexities to unravel the involvement of the different areas of the cerebellum in simple and complex bimanual coordination. This study confirms the general bimanual network as found by Puttemans et al. (Puttemans et al. in J Neurosci 25:4270-4278, 2005) and highlights the differences between preferred in-phase (simultaneous movements of homologous muscle groups) and anti-phase movement conditions (alternating movements of homologous muscle groups), and more complex, non-preferred bimanual movements (e.g., out-of-phase movements). Our results show a differential role for the anterior and posterior vermis in bimanual coordination, with a role for the anterior vermis in anti-phase and complex bimanual coordination, and an exclusive role for the posterior vermis in complex bimanual movements. In addition, the way complexity was manipulated also seems to play a role in the involvement of the anterior and posterior vermis. We hypothesize that the anterior vermis is involved in sequential/spatial control, while the posterior vermis is involved in temporal control of (bimanual) coordination, though other factors such as (visual) feedback and continuity of the movement also seem to have an impact. More studies are needed to unravel the specific role of the cerebellar vermis in bimanual coordination

Clinicians' views of using cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEP) in the permanent childhood hearing impairment patient pathway

Objective: To obtain clinicians' views on the use of cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEP) in the clinical pathway. Design: A questionnaire aimed at clinicians who use the HEARLab system with the Aided Cortical Assessment (ACA) Module. Results compared for Australians (where HEARLab produced) to other countries. Sample: The questionnaire was completed by 49 clinicians; 33 from Australia and 13 clinicians outside of Australia and 3 clinicians, destination unknown. Results: The findings of this research demonstrated that clinicians using CAEPs found them valuable for clinical practice. CAEPs were used to verify or modify hearing aid fittings and were used for counselling parents to reinforce the need for hearing aids. With the use of speech token as the stimulus clinicians had more relevant information to increase confidence in decision-making on paediatric hearing management. Conclusions: The main benefit from the use of CAEPs (using speech token stimuli) was for infant hearing aid fitting programmes, to facilitate earlier decisions relating to hearing aid fitting, for fine-tuning the aids and as an additional measure for cochlear implant referrals

Xenqit ir-Raba’

Ġabra ta’ poeżiji u proża li tinkludi: Frak ta’ D. K. – Lill-Kittieba ta’ P. – Xenqit ir-Raba’ ta’ Dun Karm – Frak minn Shakespeare ta’ D. K.N/

Quis ut Deus?

Ġabra ta’ poeżiji u proża li tinkludi: To my friend, Dun Karm ta’ Ġużè Aquilina – To my canary ta’ Ġużè Aquilina – Lil Dun Karm ta’ Dun Frans Camilleri – Defunctus adhuc loquitur ta’ Alfred M. Previ – Quis ut Deus? ta’ Dun Karm – Monsinjur Dun Karm Psaila ta’ K. Vassallo.peer-reviewe

Nhar San Duminku tal-Birgu

Ġabra ta’ poeżiji u proża li tinkludi: Imħabba u lwien ta’ Dun Frans Camilleri – Il-lum u l-bieraħ ta’ Rużar Briffa – Issa li.... ta’ K. Vassallo – Imħabba taħt siġra ta’ Vincent Caruana – Morna għall-bebbux ta’ Ġużi Abela – Ward fuq qabri ta’ Pawlu Aquilina – Nhar San Duminku tal-Birgu ta’ Val. V. Barbara.N/

Cerebellar induced differential polyglot aphasia: a neurolinguistic and fMRI study

Research has shown that linguistic functions in the bilingual brain are subserved by similar neural circuits as in monolinguals, but with extra-activity associated with cognitive and attentional control. Although a role for the right cerebellum in multilingual language processing has recently been acknowledged, a potential role of the left cerebellum remains largely unexplored. This paper reports the clinical and fMRI findings in a strongly right-handed (late) multilingual patient who developed differential polyglot aphasia, ataxic dysarthria and a selective decrease in executive function due to an ischemic stroke in the left cerebellum. fMRI revealed that lexical-semantic retrieval in the unaffected L1 was predominantly associated with activations in the left cortical areas (left prefrontal area and left postcentral gyrus), while naming in two affected non-native languages recruited a significantly larger bilateral functional network, including the cerebellum. It is hypothesized that the left cerebellar insult resulted in decreased right prefrontal hemisphere functioning due to a loss of cerebellar impulses through the cerebello-cerebral pathways