Clinical, neuropsychological, structural and functional neuroimaging results are reported in a pa... more Clinical, neuropsychological, structural and functional neuroimaging results are reported in a patient who developed a unique combination of symptoms after a bi-thalamic and right putaminal stroke. The symptoms consisted of dysexecutive disturbances associated with confabulating behavior and auto-activation deficits. Basal ganglia and thalamic lesions may result in a variety of motor, sensory, neuropsychological and behavioral syndromes. However, the combination of a dysexecutive syndrome complicated at the behavioral level with an auto-activation and confabulatory syndrome has never been reported. Besides clinical and neuroradiological investigations, an extensive set of standardized neuropsychological tests was carried out. In the post-acute phase of the stroke, a dysexecutive syndrome was found in association with confabulating behavior and auto-activation deficits. MRI showed focal destruction of both thalami and the right putamen. Quantified ECD SPECT revealed bilateral hypoperfusions in the basal ganglia and thalamus but no perfusion deficits were found at the cortical level. The combination of disrupted auto-activation, dysexecutive and confabulating syndrome in a single patient following isolated subcortical damage renders this case exceptional. Although these findings do not reveal a functional disruption of the striato-ventral pallidal-thalamic-frontomesial limbic circuitry, they add to the understanding of the functional role of the basal ganglia in cognitive and behavioral syndromes.
During the last decades, many studies have shown that the thalamus is crucially involved in langu... more During the last decades, many studies have shown that the thalamus is crucially involved in language and cognition. We critically reviewed a study corpus of 465 patients with vascular thalamic lesions published in the literature since 1980. 42 out of 465 (9%) cases with isolated thalamic lesions allowed further neurocognitive analysis. On the neurolinguistic level, fluent output (=31/33; 93.9%), normal to mild impairment of repetition (=33/35; 94.3%), mild dysarthria (=8/9; 88.9%) and normal to mild impairment of auditory comprehension (=27/34; 79.4%) were most commonly found in the group of patients with left and bilateral thalamic lesions. The taxonomic label of thalamic aphasia applied to the majority of the patients with left thalamic damage (=7/11; 63.6%) and to one patient with bithalamic lesions (=1/1). On the neuropsychological level, almost 90% of the left thalamic and bithalamic patient group presented with amnestic problems, executive dysfunctions and behaviour and/or mood alterations. In addition, two thirds (2/3) of the patients with bilateral thalamic damage presented with a typical cluster of neurocognitive disturbances consisting of constructional apraxia, anosognosia, desorientation, global intellectual dysfunctioning, amnesia, and executive dysfunctions associated with behaviour and/or mood alterations. Our study supports the long-standing view of a 'lateralised linguistic thalamus' but restates the issue of a 'lateralised cognitive thalamus'. In addition, critical analysis of the available literature supports the view that aphasia following left or bithalamic damage constitutes a prototypical linguistic syndrome.
Bilateral vascular thalamic lesions are rare. Although a variety of neurobehavioral manifestation... more Bilateral vascular thalamic lesions are rare. Although a variety of neurobehavioral manifestations have been described, the literature is less documented with regard to accompanying linguistic disturbances. This article presents an in-depth neurolinguistic analysis of the language symptoms of a patient who incurred bilateral paramedian ischemic damage of the thalamus. In the post-acute phase of the stroke, a unique combination of transcortical sensory aphasia with syntactic impairment was found. Because of this atypical semiological association, additional analyses of spontaneous speech were performed. In spite of the typological aYnity with the grammatic characteristic of marked simpliWcation of syntax observed in Broca's aphasia, only a wordclass speciWc, lexical-semantic deWcit for verbs was objectiWed. The hypothesis that lexical-semantic disturbances in our patient might result from a functional deaVerentiation of both thalami with the frontal lobe is supported by: (1) associated neuropsychological deWcits of frontal origin and (2) frontal-like behavioral disturbances.
Crossed aphasia in dextrals (CAD) following pure subcortical lesions is rare. This study describe... more Crossed aphasia in dextrals (CAD) following pure subcortical lesions is rare. This study describes a right-handed patient with an ischemic lesion in the right thalamus. In the post-acute phase of the stroke, a unique combination of 'crossed thalamic aphasia' was found with left visuo-spatial neglect and constructional apraxia. On the basis of the criteria used in Mariën et al. [67], this case-report is the first reliable representative of vascular CAD following an isolated lesion in the right thalamus. Furthermore, this paper presents a detailed analysis of linguistic and cognitive impairments of 'possible' and 'reliable' subcortical CAD-cases published since 1975. Out of 25 patients with a pure subcortical lesion, nine cases were considered as 'possibly reliable or reliable'. A review of these cases reveals that: 1) demographic data are consistent with the general findings for the entire group of vascular CAD, 2) the neurolinguistic findings do not support the data in the general CAD-population with regard to a) the high prevalence of transcortical aphasia and b) the tendency towards a copresence of an oral versus written language dissociation and a 'mirror-image' lesion-aphasia profile, 3) subcortical CAD is not a transient phenomenon, 4) the lesion-aphasia correlations are not congruent with the high incidence of anomalous cases in the general CAD-population, 5) neuropsychological impairments may accompany subcortical CAD.
This meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the... more This meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in social cognitive processes. In a recent meta-analysis, Van Overwalle, Baetens, Mariën, and Vandekerckhove () documented that the cerebellum is implicated in social processes of "body" reading (mirroring; e.g., understanding other persons' intentions from observing their movements) and "mind" reading (mentalizing, e.g., inferring other persons' beliefs, intentions or personality traits, reconstructing persons' past, future, or hypothetical events). In a recent functional connectivity study, Buckner et al. () offered a novel parcellation of cerebellar topography that substantially overlaps with the cerebellar meta-analytic findings of Van Overwalle et al. (). This overlap suggests that the involvement of the cerebellum in social reasoning depends on its functional connectivity with the cerebrum. To test this hypothesis, we ex...
This meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the... more This meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in social cognitive processes. In a recent meta-analysis, Van Overwalle, Baetens, Mariën, and Vandekerckhove () documented that the cerebellum is implicated in social processes of "body" reading (mirroring; e.g., understanding other persons' intentions from observing their movements) and "mind" reading (mentalizing, e.g., inferring other persons' beliefs, intentions or personality traits, reconstructing persons' past, future, or hypothetical events). In a recent functional connectivity study, Buckner et al. () offered a novel parcellation of cerebellar topography that substantially overlaps with the cerebellar meta-analytic findings of Van Overwalle et al. (). This overlap suggests that the involvement of the cerebellum in social reasoning depends on its functional connectivity with the cerebrum. To test this hypothesis, we ex...
This multi-study connectivity analysis explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum wit... more This multi-study connectivity analysis explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in social mentalizing, that is, understanding the mind of another person. The analysis covers 5 studies (n=92) involving abstract and complex forms of social mentalizing such as (a) person and group impression formation based on behavioral descriptions and (b) constructing personal counterfactual events (i.e., how the past could have turned out better). The results suggest that cerebellar activity during these social processes reflects a domain-specific mentalizing functionality that is strongly connected with a corresponding mentalizing network in the cerebrum. A significant pattern of connectivity was found linking the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) with the right posterior cerebellum, and linking the latter with the left TPJ. In addition, in the cerebrum, further connectivity was found through links of the bilateral TPJ with the dorsal mPFC, orbitofrontal cortex and between right and left TPJ. The discussion centers on the role of these cerebro-cerebellar connections in matching external information from the cerebrum with internal predictions generated by the cerebellum. These internal predictions might involve the sequencing of the person's behaviors.
This paper describes the prosodic characteristics of a female Dutch native speaker with so-called... more This paper describes the prosodic characteristics of a female Dutch native speaker with so-called Foreign Accent Syndrome. Although Foreign Accent Syndrome has often been regarded as a speech disorder which is characterized by substantial deviations in intonation patterns, the case of a Dutch-speaking patient is reported whose intonation patterns can be regarded as normal.
Schmahmann's syndrome represents a novel clinical condition consisting of a constellation of cogn... more Schmahmann's syndrome represents a novel clinical condition consisting of a constellation of cognitive and affective deficits following cerebellar disease. The complex was first described in 1998 as cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS) on the basis of a careful neurological examination, detailed bedside mental state tests, neuropsychological investigations and anatomical neuroimaging of a group of 20 patients with focal cerebellar disorders. The syndrome was characterized by four clusters of symptoms including: (a) impairment of executive functions such as planning, set-shifting, verbal fluency, abstract reasoning and working memory, (b) impaired visuo-spatial cognition, (c) personality changes with blunting of affect or abnormal behaviour, and (d) language deficits including agrammatism, wordfinding disturbances, disruption of language dynamics and dysprosodia. This complex of neurocognitive and behavioural-affective symptoms was ascribed to a functional disruption of the reciprocal pathways that connect the cerebellum with the limbic circuitry and the prefrontal, temporal and parietal association cortices. With the introduction of Schmahmann's syndrome, clinical ataxiology has found its third cornerstone, the two others being the cerebellar motor syndrome (CMS) mainly delineated by the pioneer French and English neurologists of the 19 th and early 20 th century, and the vestibulo-cerebellar syndrome (VCS) consisting of ocular instability, deficits of oculomotor movements and ocular misalignment.
Although upper limb movements in the vertical plane are very commonly used during the activities ... more Although upper limb movements in the vertical plane are very commonly used during the activities of daily life, there is still a lack of a reliable and easy standardized procedure to quantify them. In particular, ageing is associated with a decline in performances of coordinated movements, but a tool to quantify this decline is missing. We created a novel portable test called counting arm movement test (CAM test). Participants were asked to perform fast and accurate successive pointing movements towards two fixed targets (mechanical counters) located in a vertical plane in the parasagittal axis during three different time periods (15, 30, 45 s). Each upper limb was assessed separately. The test was evaluated in a group of 63 healthy subjects (mean age ± SD 49.1 ± 19.8 years; F/M 33/30; range 18-87 years). Motor performances (number of clicks) significantly decreased as a function of age for both the dominant side (age effect; linear regression; p < 0.0001 for 15, 30 and 45 s) and the non-dominant side (linear regression; p < 0.0001 for 15, 30 and 45 s). Performances on the dominant and non-dominant side were linearly correlated with the time periods (p < 0.0001 on both sides). The symmetry index (ratio of performance on the dominant side divided by performance on the non-dominant side) was correlated linearly and positively with the duration of the test (y = 0.002x + 1.053; p = 0.0056). We also found a linear relationship between upper limb length and motor performance on the non-dominant side for 15 s (p = 0.023) and 45 s (p = 0.041). The test was characterized by a very high correlation between the results obtained by two investigators during two successive sessions in a subgroup of 7 subjects (Pearson product moment correlation: 0.989 for the dominant side and 0.988 for the non-dominant side). The CAM test appears as a robust and low cost tool to quantify upper limb pointing movements. In particular, the test strongly discriminates the effects of age upon motor performances in upper limbs. Future studies are now required to establish the sensitivity, specificity and reliability of this procedure in selected neuromuscular or skeletal diseases affecting the elderly.
Cognitive writing process characteristics in Alzheimer’s disease Introduction For the diagnosis o... more Cognitive writing process characteristics in Alzheimer’s disease Introduction For the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a large variety of neuropsychological tests are available. In some of these tests, linguistic processing - both oral and written - is an important factor. Language disturbances might serve as a strong indicator for an underlying neurodegenerative disorder like AD. However, the current diagnostic instruments for language assessment mainly focus on product measures, ignoring the importance of the process that leads to written or spoken language production. In this study, it is our aim: describe and test differences between the three participant groups on the basis of a selection of writing process variables (inter- and intrapersonal characteristics); test the diagnostic accuracy with a selection of writing process variables (for discriminating AD from healthy elderly). Method In this study three groups participated: (1) Patients with mild dementia due to...
Objective. To investigate possible neurobehavioral changes secondary to a mindfulness based inter... more Objective. To investigate possible neurobehavioral changes secondary to a mindfulness based intervention (MBI) training for individuals living with Parkinson's disease (PD). Background. In the context of complementary medicine, MBIs are increasingly being used for stress reduction and in patient populations coping with chronic illness. The use of alternative and complementary medicine may be higher in patients with chronic conditions such as PD. However, behavioral effects of mindfulness training in PD have not yet been reported in the literature and this points to an unmet need and warrants further examination. Methods. A total of 27 out of 30 PD patients completed a randomized controlled longitudinal trial. Questionnaires and the UPDRS I-IV were obtained at baseline and 8-week follow-up. Results. Significant changes after the MBI were found including a 5.5 point decrease on the UPDRS motor score, an increase of 0.79 points on Parkinson's disease questionnaire (PDQ-39) pain item, and a 3.15 point increase in the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire observe facet. Conclusions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative analysis of neurobehavioral effects of MBI in PD.
Clinical, neuropsychological, structural and functional neuroimaging results are reported in a pa... more Clinical, neuropsychological, structural and functional neuroimaging results are reported in a patient who developed a unique combination of symptoms after a bi-thalamic and right putaminal stroke. The symptoms consisted of dysexecutive disturbances associated with confabulating behavior and auto-activation deficits. Basal ganglia and thalamic lesions may result in a variety of motor, sensory, neuropsychological and behavioral syndromes. However, the combination of a dysexecutive syndrome complicated at the behavioral level with an auto-activation and confabulatory syndrome has never been reported. Besides clinical and neuroradiological investigations, an extensive set of standardized neuropsychological tests was carried out. In the post-acute phase of the stroke, a dysexecutive syndrome was found in association with confabulating behavior and auto-activation deficits. MRI showed focal destruction of both thalami and the right putamen. Quantified ECD SPECT revealed bilateral hypoperfusions in the basal ganglia and thalamus but no perfusion deficits were found at the cortical level. The combination of disrupted auto-activation, dysexecutive and confabulating syndrome in a single patient following isolated subcortical damage renders this case exceptional. Although these findings do not reveal a functional disruption of the striato-ventral pallidal-thalamic-frontomesial limbic circuitry, they add to the understanding of the functional role of the basal ganglia in cognitive and behavioral syndromes.
During the last decades, many studies have shown that the thalamus is crucially involved in langu... more During the last decades, many studies have shown that the thalamus is crucially involved in language and cognition. We critically reviewed a study corpus of 465 patients with vascular thalamic lesions published in the literature since 1980. 42 out of 465 (9%) cases with isolated thalamic lesions allowed further neurocognitive analysis. On the neurolinguistic level, fluent output (=31/33; 93.9%), normal to mild impairment of repetition (=33/35; 94.3%), mild dysarthria (=8/9; 88.9%) and normal to mild impairment of auditory comprehension (=27/34; 79.4%) were most commonly found in the group of patients with left and bilateral thalamic lesions. The taxonomic label of thalamic aphasia applied to the majority of the patients with left thalamic damage (=7/11; 63.6%) and to one patient with bithalamic lesions (=1/1). On the neuropsychological level, almost 90% of the left thalamic and bithalamic patient group presented with amnestic problems, executive dysfunctions and behaviour and/or mood alterations. In addition, two thirds (2/3) of the patients with bilateral thalamic damage presented with a typical cluster of neurocognitive disturbances consisting of constructional apraxia, anosognosia, desorientation, global intellectual dysfunctioning, amnesia, and executive dysfunctions associated with behaviour and/or mood alterations. Our study supports the long-standing view of a 'lateralised linguistic thalamus' but restates the issue of a 'lateralised cognitive thalamus'. In addition, critical analysis of the available literature supports the view that aphasia following left or bithalamic damage constitutes a prototypical linguistic syndrome.
Bilateral vascular thalamic lesions are rare. Although a variety of neurobehavioral manifestation... more Bilateral vascular thalamic lesions are rare. Although a variety of neurobehavioral manifestations have been described, the literature is less documented with regard to accompanying linguistic disturbances. This article presents an in-depth neurolinguistic analysis of the language symptoms of a patient who incurred bilateral paramedian ischemic damage of the thalamus. In the post-acute phase of the stroke, a unique combination of transcortical sensory aphasia with syntactic impairment was found. Because of this atypical semiological association, additional analyses of spontaneous speech were performed. In spite of the typological aYnity with the grammatic characteristic of marked simpliWcation of syntax observed in Broca's aphasia, only a wordclass speciWc, lexical-semantic deWcit for verbs was objectiWed. The hypothesis that lexical-semantic disturbances in our patient might result from a functional deaVerentiation of both thalami with the frontal lobe is supported by: (1) associated neuropsychological deWcits of frontal origin and (2) frontal-like behavioral disturbances.
Crossed aphasia in dextrals (CAD) following pure subcortical lesions is rare. This study describe... more Crossed aphasia in dextrals (CAD) following pure subcortical lesions is rare. This study describes a right-handed patient with an ischemic lesion in the right thalamus. In the post-acute phase of the stroke, a unique combination of 'crossed thalamic aphasia' was found with left visuo-spatial neglect and constructional apraxia. On the basis of the criteria used in Mariën et al. [67], this case-report is the first reliable representative of vascular CAD following an isolated lesion in the right thalamus. Furthermore, this paper presents a detailed analysis of linguistic and cognitive impairments of 'possible' and 'reliable' subcortical CAD-cases published since 1975. Out of 25 patients with a pure subcortical lesion, nine cases were considered as 'possibly reliable or reliable'. A review of these cases reveals that: 1) demographic data are consistent with the general findings for the entire group of vascular CAD, 2) the neurolinguistic findings do not support the data in the general CAD-population with regard to a) the high prevalence of transcortical aphasia and b) the tendency towards a copresence of an oral versus written language dissociation and a 'mirror-image' lesion-aphasia profile, 3) subcortical CAD is not a transient phenomenon, 4) the lesion-aphasia correlations are not congruent with the high incidence of anomalous cases in the general CAD-population, 5) neuropsychological impairments may accompany subcortical CAD.
This meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the... more This meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in social cognitive processes. In a recent meta-analysis, Van Overwalle, Baetens, Mariën, and Vandekerckhove () documented that the cerebellum is implicated in social processes of "body" reading (mirroring; e.g., understanding other persons' intentions from observing their movements) and "mind" reading (mentalizing, e.g., inferring other persons' beliefs, intentions or personality traits, reconstructing persons' past, future, or hypothetical events). In a recent functional connectivity study, Buckner et al. () offered a novel parcellation of cerebellar topography that substantially overlaps with the cerebellar meta-analytic findings of Van Overwalle et al. (). This overlap suggests that the involvement of the cerebellum in social reasoning depends on its functional connectivity with the cerebrum. To test this hypothesis, we ex...
This meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the... more This meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in social cognitive processes. In a recent meta-analysis, Van Overwalle, Baetens, Mariën, and Vandekerckhove () documented that the cerebellum is implicated in social processes of "body" reading (mirroring; e.g., understanding other persons' intentions from observing their movements) and "mind" reading (mentalizing, e.g., inferring other persons' beliefs, intentions or personality traits, reconstructing persons' past, future, or hypothetical events). In a recent functional connectivity study, Buckner et al. () offered a novel parcellation of cerebellar topography that substantially overlaps with the cerebellar meta-analytic findings of Van Overwalle et al. (). This overlap suggests that the involvement of the cerebellum in social reasoning depends on its functional connectivity with the cerebrum. To test this hypothesis, we ex...
This multi-study connectivity analysis explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum wit... more This multi-study connectivity analysis explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in social mentalizing, that is, understanding the mind of another person. The analysis covers 5 studies (n=92) involving abstract and complex forms of social mentalizing such as (a) person and group impression formation based on behavioral descriptions and (b) constructing personal counterfactual events (i.e., how the past could have turned out better). The results suggest that cerebellar activity during these social processes reflects a domain-specific mentalizing functionality that is strongly connected with a corresponding mentalizing network in the cerebrum. A significant pattern of connectivity was found linking the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) with the right posterior cerebellum, and linking the latter with the left TPJ. In addition, in the cerebrum, further connectivity was found through links of the bilateral TPJ with the dorsal mPFC, orbitofrontal cortex and between right and left TPJ. The discussion centers on the role of these cerebro-cerebellar connections in matching external information from the cerebrum with internal predictions generated by the cerebellum. These internal predictions might involve the sequencing of the person's behaviors.
This paper describes the prosodic characteristics of a female Dutch native speaker with so-called... more This paper describes the prosodic characteristics of a female Dutch native speaker with so-called Foreign Accent Syndrome. Although Foreign Accent Syndrome has often been regarded as a speech disorder which is characterized by substantial deviations in intonation patterns, the case of a Dutch-speaking patient is reported whose intonation patterns can be regarded as normal.
Schmahmann's syndrome represents a novel clinical condition consisting of a constellation of cogn... more Schmahmann's syndrome represents a novel clinical condition consisting of a constellation of cognitive and affective deficits following cerebellar disease. The complex was first described in 1998 as cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS) on the basis of a careful neurological examination, detailed bedside mental state tests, neuropsychological investigations and anatomical neuroimaging of a group of 20 patients with focal cerebellar disorders. The syndrome was characterized by four clusters of symptoms including: (a) impairment of executive functions such as planning, set-shifting, verbal fluency, abstract reasoning and working memory, (b) impaired visuo-spatial cognition, (c) personality changes with blunting of affect or abnormal behaviour, and (d) language deficits including agrammatism, wordfinding disturbances, disruption of language dynamics and dysprosodia. This complex of neurocognitive and behavioural-affective symptoms was ascribed to a functional disruption of the reciprocal pathways that connect the cerebellum with the limbic circuitry and the prefrontal, temporal and parietal association cortices. With the introduction of Schmahmann's syndrome, clinical ataxiology has found its third cornerstone, the two others being the cerebellar motor syndrome (CMS) mainly delineated by the pioneer French and English neurologists of the 19 th and early 20 th century, and the vestibulo-cerebellar syndrome (VCS) consisting of ocular instability, deficits of oculomotor movements and ocular misalignment.
Although upper limb movements in the vertical plane are very commonly used during the activities ... more Although upper limb movements in the vertical plane are very commonly used during the activities of daily life, there is still a lack of a reliable and easy standardized procedure to quantify them. In particular, ageing is associated with a decline in performances of coordinated movements, but a tool to quantify this decline is missing. We created a novel portable test called counting arm movement test (CAM test). Participants were asked to perform fast and accurate successive pointing movements towards two fixed targets (mechanical counters) located in a vertical plane in the parasagittal axis during three different time periods (15, 30, 45 s). Each upper limb was assessed separately. The test was evaluated in a group of 63 healthy subjects (mean age ± SD 49.1 ± 19.8 years; F/M 33/30; range 18-87 years). Motor performances (number of clicks) significantly decreased as a function of age for both the dominant side (age effect; linear regression; p < 0.0001 for 15, 30 and 45 s) and the non-dominant side (linear regression; p < 0.0001 for 15, 30 and 45 s). Performances on the dominant and non-dominant side were linearly correlated with the time periods (p < 0.0001 on both sides). The symmetry index (ratio of performance on the dominant side divided by performance on the non-dominant side) was correlated linearly and positively with the duration of the test (y = 0.002x + 1.053; p = 0.0056). We also found a linear relationship between upper limb length and motor performance on the non-dominant side for 15 s (p = 0.023) and 45 s (p = 0.041). The test was characterized by a very high correlation between the results obtained by two investigators during two successive sessions in a subgroup of 7 subjects (Pearson product moment correlation: 0.989 for the dominant side and 0.988 for the non-dominant side). The CAM test appears as a robust and low cost tool to quantify upper limb pointing movements. In particular, the test strongly discriminates the effects of age upon motor performances in upper limbs. Future studies are now required to establish the sensitivity, specificity and reliability of this procedure in selected neuromuscular or skeletal diseases affecting the elderly.
Cognitive writing process characteristics in Alzheimer’s disease Introduction For the diagnosis o... more Cognitive writing process characteristics in Alzheimer’s disease Introduction For the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a large variety of neuropsychological tests are available. In some of these tests, linguistic processing - both oral and written - is an important factor. Language disturbances might serve as a strong indicator for an underlying neurodegenerative disorder like AD. However, the current diagnostic instruments for language assessment mainly focus on product measures, ignoring the importance of the process that leads to written or spoken language production. In this study, it is our aim: describe and test differences between the three participant groups on the basis of a selection of writing process variables (inter- and intrapersonal characteristics); test the diagnostic accuracy with a selection of writing process variables (for discriminating AD from healthy elderly). Method In this study three groups participated: (1) Patients with mild dementia due to...
Objective. To investigate possible neurobehavioral changes secondary to a mindfulness based inter... more Objective. To investigate possible neurobehavioral changes secondary to a mindfulness based intervention (MBI) training for individuals living with Parkinson's disease (PD). Background. In the context of complementary medicine, MBIs are increasingly being used for stress reduction and in patient populations coping with chronic illness. The use of alternative and complementary medicine may be higher in patients with chronic conditions such as PD. However, behavioral effects of mindfulness training in PD have not yet been reported in the literature and this points to an unmet need and warrants further examination. Methods. A total of 27 out of 30 PD patients completed a randomized controlled longitudinal trial. Questionnaires and the UPDRS I-IV were obtained at baseline and 8-week follow-up. Results. Significant changes after the MBI were found including a 5.5 point decrease on the UPDRS motor score, an increase of 0.79 points on Parkinson's disease questionnaire (PDQ-39) pain item, and a 3.15 point increase in the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire observe facet. Conclusions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative analysis of neurobehavioral effects of MBI in PD.
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Papers by Peter Mariën