Objective To explore visual-spatial working memory deficits of patients with basal ganglia damage, based on which tried to provide the new method for detecting the injuries in basal ganglia. Methods Twenty-five patients with lesions in the basal ganglia and twenty-five healthy controls performed visual-spatial working memory tasks, including a face-recognition and a spatial delayed-response. Results For the basal ganglia damage group ,the correct rate of both visual- face ( 54.5 ± 9.6 ) % and visual-spatial ( 80.0 ± 11.7 ) % working memory tasks was significantly lower than that of the control group ( ( 64.3 ± 9.5 ) %, ( 93.6 ± 4.9) %, respectively) ,and the difference was statistically significant ( u= - 147.5,80.5, P＜0. 01 ). For the patients injured in the left basal ganglia, the correct rate of visual- face working memory (48.5 ± 5.4 )% was obviously lower than that of patients injured in the right basal ganglia ( 59.2 ± 9.8 ) %, and the difference was statistically significant ( u =25.5, P＜0. 01 ) ;but the difference of correct rate for the visual-space working memory was not statistically significant( u = 52.5, P＞ 0.05 ). In contrast to the controls, both the visual-face and visual-space working memory of the group with injuries in basal ganglia,had appeared to be disable. Conclusions The results confirmed that patients with lesions in basal ganglia had deficits of visual-spatial working memory,and that injuries either in the left or the right basal ganglia can probably cause the shiftiness of cognitive function. Therefore, the injuries in basal ganglia can be detected by the visual-spatial working memory tests.

As a classic cerebral revascularization procedure, carotid endarterectomy (CEA) has been widely used in the treatment of high-grade extracranial carotid artery stenosis. In recent years, carotid artery stenting (CAS) has a trend to replace CEA gradually. A large number of clinical studies have found that in addtion to perioperative complications, carotid restenosis after CEA and CAS also has important influence on the prognosis of patients. This article reviews the current status of diagnosis and treatment of restenosis after CEA and CAS.

Objective To study the clinical therapeutic effects of early rehabilitation training combined with acupuncture on dysphagia after acute cerebral infarction.Methods One hundred patients with dysphagia caused by acute cerebral infarction were randomly divided into 4 groups:a comprehensive treatment group(25 cases,received rehabilitation training,acupuncture and routine medication),a routine drug group(25 cases,routine medication),a rehabilitation group(25 cases,received comprehensive rehabilitation training and routine mediciation)and an acu-puncture group(25 cases,received acupuncture therapy and routine medication).Dysphagia was evaluated with videofluoroscopic swallowing study(VFSS),and the incidence of pneumonia was observed before treatment and at the 14th day after daily treatment. Results After treatment,the VFSS scores of the 4 groups were significantly higher than before treatment,and VFSS scores in the comprehensive treatment group were significantly higher than those in the other groups.The effectiveness rate in the comprehensive treatment group was significantly higher than that in the other three groups.and the incidence of pneumonia was significantly lower.Conclusions Early rehabilitation com-bined with acupuncture can improve swallowing and reduce the incidence of aspiration pneumonia in acute stroke pa-tients.

Objective To investigate motor activity of gastrointestinal tract in patients with slow transit constipation(STC). Methods 42 patients with STC and 20 healthy controls were included in the study. Each subject underwent colonic transit test, gastric emptying, orocecal transit time, electromyography and anorectal manometry. Results According to transit index, 42 STC patients were divided into 3 types: ①0.5

Objective To investigate the emotional memory characteristic in patients with leuloaraiosis(LA) and explore the neurobiological mechanisms through observing the changes of emotional memory.Methods Different valence images (including positive,neutral and negative pictures) were used to test twenty-four patients with Leuloaraiosis(LA group)and twenty-four healthy colltrols(HC group) at the same time.The emotional memory was evaluated by the recognition of emotional pictures.Results In appraisal of the emotional pictures,there was no significant difference between patients with LA (positive (10.42±2.30) and neulral (12.87±2.29),respectively) and healthy controls (positive (11.38 ± 3.25) and neutral (12.75 ± 2.86),respectively) in positive and negative appraisal (all P＞0.05).But the negative appraisal decreased between LA group (11.63 ± 1.81) and HC group (12.75 ± 2.02) (P＞ 0.05).Compared with healthy controls (38.08+±5.45),patients with LA(33.67±7.10) showed sharply decline in the emotional images memorizing task(P＜0.05).And the accuracy in recognizing positive and netural valence pictures in patients with LA ((Positive(11.04±2.40) and neulral (10.42±2.93)) was significantly lower than that in healthy controls ((positive(12.79±2.17) and neutral(12.08±2.59))(P＜0.05).But in negative stimulus,there was no significant difference between LA group(13.20± 1.86)and HC group(12.20±2.65) (P＞0.05).In addition the total correct recognition,positive and neutral valence in pictures recognition were negativly correlated with the se verity of white matter lesions in the LA patients group(r=-0.308,P=0.033;r=-0.462,P=0.003;r=-0.352,P=0.014).Conclusion The emotional memory is impaired in patients with LA,and the degree of damage is accompornied with the severity degree of LA.The emotional memory for positive and neutral vanlence pictures is impaired but the emotional memory for neutral is relatively reserved in patients with LA in pictures recognition phase.It suggests that impaired emotional memory with different valences may be related to different neuromechanisms.

Objective To characterize social-perceptual component and social-cognitive component of theory of mind in patients with Parkinson's disease.Methods A total of 19 patients with idiopathic PD and 20 demographic-matched health subjects were included in this study.They were assessed using Reading the Mind in the Eyes and faux pas task involving ToM social-perceptual component and social-cognitive component.The severity of PD was assessed on the Hoehn and Yahr scale.Results Significant difference was found between PD group and health controls on task involving ToM social-perceptual component (mind Reading:17.1 ± 3.1 vs.30.4 ± 1.7,F=278.756,P ＜0.001),test involving social-cognitive component (Faux pas Questions:29.0± 4.0 vs.41.2 ± 4.4,F =81.647,P＜0.001).While the ability to identify sex and control questions of the faux pas showed no significant difference compared to health controls group (F =3.508,P =0.069 ; F =1.063,P =0.309).Conclusions The ToM social-perceptual component and social-cognitive component are both impaired in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Objective To characterize social-perceptual component and social-cognitive component of theory of mind(TOM) in patients with Parkinson's disease.Methods A total of 19 patients with idiopathic PD and 20 demographic-matched health subjects were included in this study.They were assessed by using Reading the Mind in the Eyes and Faux Pas task involving ToM socialperceptual component and social-cognitive component.The severity of PD was assessed by the Hoehn and Yahr scale.Results Significant difference was found between PD group and health controls in task involving ToM social-perceptual component (mind Reading:17.1 ± 3.1 vs.30.4 ± 1.7,F =278.756,P＜ 0.001),test involving social-cognitive component (Faux Pas Questions:29.0 ± 4.0 vs.41.2±4.4,F=81.647,P＜0.001).While the ability to identify sex and control questions of the Faux Pas showed no significant difference as compared to health controls group (F=3.508,P=0.069;F=1.063,P =0.309).Conclusions The ToM social-perceptual component and social-cognitive component are both impaired in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Objective To investigate the ability of social cognition in patients with right temporal lobe infarction.Methods Fifteen patients with temporal lobe infarction (TLI) and 20 healthy controls (HC) were examined with the recognition of faux pas and reading the mind in the eyes tasks for assessing the ability of social cognition.Results The TLI group performed significantly worse when compared with the HC group (28.6 ± 6.1,36.4 ± 4.3 respectively) as revealed in the total faux pas-related scores (U =41.00,P ＜0.01).For the control question,there was no significant difference between the TLI group and the HC group (9.86 ±0.35,10.00 ± 0.00 ; U =130.00,P =0.097).In the reading the mind in the eyes task,patients with TLI performed worse than the HC group(17.13 ±6.41,29.75 ±2.07 respectively),and the difference had statistical significance (U =0.00,P ＜ 0.01).But there was no significant difference in gender recognition judgment (30.37 ± 1.16,31.35 ± 1.08 respectively; U =106.00,P =0.129).Conclusions The right temporal lobe involves in social cognition.Moreover,the right temporal lobe not only involves in the verbal related social cognitive processing,but also involves in the no-verbal related social cognitive processing.

Objective To investigate the characteristics of the executive function and working memory in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and the relations between working memory and executive function and the effects of working memory on patient' s daily functioning.Methods Thirty patients with MCI and 30 healthy elderly subjects were tested with a wide neuropsychoingical battery of tests including those of executive function, working memory and other cognition domain tests.Executive function was evaluated by using the verbal fluency test (VFT), color trail test (CTT), digital span (DS).Results The results showed the presence of significant executive function and working memory impairment in MCI patients as compared with the healthy controls.The scores of executive function test in MCI patients were decreased significantly in CTT (130.8±58.2 vs 52.0±13.5), CTT-B (210.2±81.8 vs 121.0±33.4),DS (3.4±0.9 vs 4.2±1.1), VFT (8.9±5.4 vs 16.4±5.4) and visuo-objective working memory (0.73±0.12 vs 0.85±9.18) respectively (t = 7.108, 5.159,-2.544,-4.879, and-4.351, all P <0.01 or P < 0.05) .In the stepwise liner regression analysis objective working memory test made a significant independent contribution to ADL (β =-0.720, t =-3.571, P < 0.01).Conclusion The patients with MCI have the deficit in executive function and working memory.Visuo-objective working memory is closely correlated with general cognitive function such as daily function, resulting in daily function decline.