Cerebral angiography was inaugurated by Egas Rfoniz of Lisbon in 1926 and has now become one of the standard diagnostic methods of cerebral lesions. Lima’s book is the first systematic treatise on this subject published by the Portuguese school in the English language. The author has been associated as neurosurgeon with RIoniz for more than twenty years, and the combined material of these two investigators comprises more than two thousand angiographies, a numbcr unsurpassed anywhere. Lima corroborates, amplifies and in some rases revises Moniz’ fundamental work which had bcen published previously in the French and German literature. The subject matter is covered in $ell organized and critical fashion, but unfortunately too little attention is paid to the numerous publications on angiography which appeared in Scandinavian, American and German literature, especially after the war. After reviewing the history of angiography, its technique is discussed. Lima advocates surgical exposure of the common carotid artery low a t the neck in preference to the percutaneous technique now practiced in many centers. He performs carotid angiography bilaterally in one sitting under local anesthesia and obtains routinely three lateral films for each injection (the first film to show the arterial phase, the second the early venous phase, and the third the late venous phase). AP projections are rarely used, and stereoscopic films never taken. The next chapter deals in detail with the normal arteriogram and phlebogram obtained by vertebral and carotid injection. Then follows a description of the typical displacements and deformities of cerebral vessels caused by intracranial tumors and, hydrocephalus. I n the next section the angioarchitectonic pattern of cerebral tumors is described. This chapter is particularly interesting and informative since Lima has done much original work on the circulation of meningiomas. The typical double blood supply of meningiomas through branches of the external and internal carotid arteries is discussed, and also the relation of ,angiographic pictures to modification of the circulation time is analyzed. The chapter on cerebral aneurysm is relatively brief but vascular malformations are discussed at length. Angiography offers an important aid i n the diagnosis of cerebral vascular occlusion. Special attention is given to the not uncommon thrombosis of the cervical portion of the carotid artery. This condition produces a characteristic clinical syndrome and can be easily recognized by low cervical carotid angiography.

The Cerebral Cortex of Man

A study was launched in 1969 among a nutritionally at-risk population in the Department of El Progreso Eastern Guatemala to determine if protein deficiency in infants and children delays mental development. It was designed as a clinical prospective trial in which subjects were exposed to either an high-calorie high-protein supplement Atole or a low-calorie supplement Fresco. Medical care was made available to both groups. Data were collected both longitudinally and through follow-up. This chapter focuses upon the longitudinal assessment and presents the methods used for developmental assessments conducted in infancy and the preschool years a review of published findings and the results of a recent reanalysis of data from those two early development periods. Subjects were drawn from two villages located in the department with the pool of potential subjects including all children aged 7 years or younger who lived in the villages at the time the study was initiated all children who moved into the villages during the course of the project and all children born in the villages between January 1 1969 and February 28 1977. In all 2393 children are included in the data set although the number of subjects for whom data are available on any given variable is considerably lower; sample sizes at each age for the tests of mental development ranged from 469 at six months to 857 at four years. Data from the Composite Infant Scale were analyzed using the mental and motor scores obtained at 6 15 and 24 months. A general linear model was used to analyze the data with treatment entered as a class variable and all analyses controlled for socioeconomic status (SES) sex and attendance. The preschool battery was first factor analyzed to reduce the large number of tests which would otherwise be conducted. Only tests considered to have minimally acceptable test-retest stability coefficients were therefore included in the analysis. A few moderately beneficial effects were found from supplementation with Atole with the effects strongest in children from the most needy families on the basis of SES composite score.

Early supplementary feeding and cognition: effects over two decades. Methodology and findings of the longitudinal study.

Traditionally, models of speech comprehension and production do not depend on concepts and processes from the phonological short-term memory (pSTM) literature. Likewise, in working memory research, pSTM is considered to be a language-independent system that facilitates language acquisition rather than speech processing per se. We discuss couplings between pSTM, speech perception and speech production, and we propose that pSTM arises from the cycling of information between two phonological buffers, one involved in speech perception and one in speech production. We discuss the specific role of these processes in speech processing, and argue that models of speech perception and production, and our understanding of their neural bases, will benefit from incorporating them.

Jacquemot C, Scott SK. What is the relationship between phonological short-term memory and speech processing?

The Noisy Brain: Stochastic Dynamics as a Principle of Brain Function

The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue: Review of the role of the motor system in speech perception.

In the neuroscience of language, phonemes are frequently described as multimodal units whose neuronal representations are distributed across perisylvian cortical regions, including auditory and sensorimotor areas. A different position views phonemes primarily as acoustic entities with posterior temporal localization, which are functionally independent from frontoparietal articulatory programs. To address this current controversy, we here discuss experimental results from neuroimaging (fMRI) as well as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies. On first glance, a mixed picture emerges, with earlier research documenting neurofunctional distinctions between phonemes in both temporal and frontoparietal sensorimotor systems, but some recent work seemingly failing to replicate the latter. Detailed analysis of methodological differences between studies reveals that the way experiments are set up explains whether sensorimotor cortex maps phonological information during speech perception or not. In particular, acoustic noise during the experiment and ‘motor noise’ caused by button press tasks work against the frontoparietal manifestation of phonemes. We highlight recent studies using sparse imaging and passive speech perception tasks along with multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) and especially representational similarity analysis (RSA), which succeeded in separating acoustic-phonological from general-acoustic processes and in mapping specific phonological information on temporal and frontoparietal regions. The question about a causal role of sensorimotor cortex on speech perception and understanding is addressed by reviewing recent TMS studies. We conclude that frontoparietal cortices, including ventral motor and somatosensory areas, reflect phonological information during speech perception and exert a causal influence on understanding.

/pdf/is-the-sensorimotor-cortex-relevant-for-speech-perception-3878n6rnj2.pdf

Is the Sensorimotor Cortex Relevant for Speech Perception and Understanding? An Integrative Review.

Classic wisdom had been that motor and premotor cortex contribute to motor execution but not to higher cognition and language comprehension. In contrast, mounting evidence from neuroimaging, patient research, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) suggest sensorimotor interaction and, specifically, that the articulatory motor cortex is important for classifying meaningless speech sounds into phonemic categories. However, whether these findings speak to the comprehension issue is unclear, because language comprehension does not require explicit phonemic classification and previous results may therefore relate to factors alien to semantic understanding. We here used the standard psycholinguistic test of spoken word comprehension, theword-to-picture-matching task, and concordant TMS to articulatory motorcortex. TMS pulses were applied to primary motor cortex controlling either the lips or the tongue as subjects heard critical word stimuli starting with bilabial lip-related or alveolar tongue-related stop consonants (e.g., “pool” or “tool”). A significant cross-over interaction showed that articulatory motor cortex stimulation delayed comprehension responses for phonologically incongruent words relative to congruous ones (i.e., lip area TMS delayed “tool” relative to “pool” responses). As local TMS to articulatory motor areas differentially delays the comprehension of phonologically incongruous spoken words, we conclude that motor systems can take a causal role in semantic comprehension and, hence, higher cognition.

/pdf/causal-influence-of-articulatory-motor-cortex-on-168r5vacr4.pdf

Causal Influence of Articulatory Motor Cortex on Comprehending Single Spoken Words: TMS Evidence.

The human brain sets itself apart from that of its primate relatives by specific neuroanatomical features, especially the strong linkage of left perisylvian language areas (frontal and temporal cortex) by way of the arcuate fasciculus (AF). AF connectivity has been shown to correlate with verbal working memory-a specifically human trait providing the foundation for language abilities-but a mechanistic explanation of any related causal link between anatomical structure and cognitive function is still missing. Here, we provide a possible explanation and link, by using neurocomputational simulations in neuroanatomically structured models of the perisylvian language cortex. We compare networks mimicking key features of cortical connectivity in monkeys and humans, specifically the presence of relatively stronger higher-order "jumping links" between nonadjacent perisylvian cortical areas in the latter, and demonstrate that the emergence of working memory for syllables and word forms is a functional consequence of this structural evolutionary change. We also show that a mere increase of learning time is not sufficient, but that this specific structural feature, which entails higher connectivity degree of relevant areas and shorter sensorimotor path length, is crucial. These results offer a better understanding of specifically human anatomical features underlying the language faculty and their evolutionary selection advantage.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Why do humans have superior language abilities compared to primates? Recently, a uniquely human neuroanatomical feature has been demonstrated in the strength of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), a fiber pathway interlinking the left-hemispheric language areas. Although AF anatomy has been related to linguistic skills, an explanation of how this fiber bundle may support language abilities is still missing. We use neuroanatomically structured computational models to investigate the consequences of evolutionary changes in language area connectivity and demonstrate that the human-specific higher connectivity degree and comparatively shorter sensorimotor path length implicated by the AF entail emergence of verbal working memory, a prerequisite for language learning. These results offer a better understanding of specifically human anatomical features for language and their evolutionary selection advantage.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/37/11/3045.full.pdf

Malte R. Schomers

Papers

Is the Sensorimotor Cortex Relevant for Speech Perception and Understanding? An Integrative Review.

Causal Influence of Articulatory Motor Cortex on Comprehending Single Spoken Words: TMS Evidence.

Neurocomputational Consequences of Evolutionary Connectivity Changes in Perisylvian Language Cortex