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Background: Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by difficulties with all aspects of information acquisition in the written word, including slow and inaccurate word recognition. The neural basis behind DD has not been fully elucidated. Method: The study included 22 typically developing (TD) children, 16 children with isolated spelling disorder (SpD), and 20 children with DD. The cortical thickness, folding index, and mean curvature of Broca's area, including the triangular part of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFGtriang) and the opercular part of the left inferior frontal gyrus, were assessed to explore the differences of surface morphology among the TD, SpD, and DD groups. Furthermore, the structural covariance network (SCN) of the triangular part of the left inferior frontal gyrus was analyzed to explore the changes of structural connectivity in the SpD and DD groups. Results: The DD group showed higher curvature and cortical folding of the left IFGtriang than the TD group and SpD group. In addition, compared with the TD group and the SpD group, the structural connectivity between the left IFGtriang and the left middle-frontal gyrus and the right mid-orbital frontal gyrus was increased in the DD group, and the structural connectivity between the left IFGtriang and the right precuneus and anterior cingulate was decreased in the DD group. Conclusion: DD had atypical structural connectivity in brain regions related to visual attention, memory and which might impact the information input and integration needed for reading and spelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Broca's aphasia, a non-fluent aphasia, is a frustrating condition with extensive psychological, familial, and social impact. The reports of people who have already recovered or can express themselves are essential to increasing knowledge about the experience of living with Broca's aphasia. A-FROM is a framework designed to organize thinking about the impact of living with aphasia and includes four key domains: Communication and language environment; Language and related impairments; Personal identity, attitudes and feelings, and Participation in life situations. Nursing intervention is central to optimizing recovery and positively influencing the experience of successfully living with this clinical condition. Objective To map scientific evidence about the experience of people who lived through a period of Broca's aphasia. Methods A Scoping Review was performed following the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. The review was based on the research question, "How does the person report the experience of having lived through a period of Broca's aphasia?", formulated according to the PCC strategy. The search was carried out in MEDLINE®, CINAHL®, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and Scopus electronic databases in November 2022. Articles were selected based on the eligibility criteria. The review followed the PRISMA-ScR EQUATOR checklist. Results Seventeen articles published between 1961 and 2022 were included. Data obtained were grouped according to the key domains of the A-FROM tool. Information related to Personal identity, attitudes and feelings, and Participation in life situations were the most cited, followed by Language and related impairments and Communication and language environment. Conclusion It was identified that health professionals, therapeutic interventions, spirituality, hope, context, interactions, and psychosocial factors influence the experience of Broca's aphasia. It is essential to continue investigating how people report the experience of having lived through a period of Broca's aphasia to improve the quality of care and people's quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all the nineteenth-century physicians whose names still resonate today, Armand Trousseau is perhaps the one most familiar, for his description of carpal spasm as a sign of hypocalcemia (Trousseau's sign) and his description of the hypercoagulable state associated with cancer (Trousseau's syndrome). In the last three years of his life, Trousseau turned his attention to aphasia, which he included in his 1864 and 1865 lectures given at Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris and which he discussed in an address to the Imperial Academy of Medicine in 1865. Trousseau preceded Wernicke in describing aphasia as a symptom complex, in which he included Broca's aphemia, receptive aphasia, the inability to read with and without the inability to write (alexia with and without agraphia), the inability to name common objects (amnesic aphasia or anomia) and to recognize numbers (acalculia), and the inability to draw. Trousseau concluded that such a varied symptomatology could not arise from a single area, and he proposed that lesions of the posterior inferior frontal convolution identified by Broca, of the insula and corpus striatum and of the temporal and parietal lobes, could give rise to aphasia. The role of the posterior temporal lobe in receptive aphasia was confirmed by Wernicke in 1874, and the role of the inferior parietal lobule in agraphia and alexia was confirmed by Dejerine in 1891. Trousseau thought that aphasia resulted from the loss of the memory for words and for the synergistic actions of the movements of articulations learned in early childhood. Trousseau added inattention, lack of comprehension, and cognitive decline to amnesia as contributing factors to the verbal and nonverbal expression of thought. Trousseau constructed a comprehensive theory of aphasia that unified its semiology, localization, and pathophysiology. This construct had the virtue of being predictive and falsifiable by the clinico-pathological method. Through insight born of observation, Trousseau identified the issues that dominated aphasiology into the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent technological advances show the feasibility of offline decoding speech from neuronal signals, paving the way to the development of chronically implanted speech brain computer interfaces (sBCI). Two key steps that still need to be addressed for the online deployment of sBCI are, on the one hand, the definition of relevant design parameters of the recording arrays, on the other hand, the identification of robust physiological markers of the patient's intention to speak, which can be used to online trigger the decoding process. To address these issues, we acutely recorded speech-related signals from the frontal cortex of two human patients undergoing awake neurosurgery for brain tumors using three different micro-electrocorticographic (μ ECoG) devices. First, we observed that, at the smallest investigated pitch (600 μ m), neighboring channels are highly correlated, suggesting that more closely spaced electrodes would provide some redundant information. Second, we trained a classifier to recognize speech-related motor preparation from high-gamma oscillations (70–150 Hz), demonstrating that these neuronal signals can be used to reliably predict speech onset. Notably, our model generalized both across subjects and recording devices showing the robustness of its performance. These findings provide crucial information for the design of future online sBCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jules Baillarger was one of the foremost figures of nineteenth-century neurobiology. He is remembered today for his discovery that the human cerebral cortex is composed of six intercalated layers. Even today, two horizontal fiber bundles within cortical layers IV and V are referred to as the outer and inner bands of Baillarger. It is a measure of the importance of Baillarger's discovery that his findings were elaborated upon with advances in microscopy and the development of methods for staining neurons and myelin by, notably, Theodor Meynert and Santiago Ramon y Cajal. Furthermore, Baillarger's observation that there are variations in the thickness of one or another of the six cortical layers in different cortical regions, and the discovery of giant pyramidal motor neurons in layer V of the precentral gyrus, ultimately led to the cytoarchitectonic and myeloarchitectonic maps of Oscar Vogt and Cécile Vogt-Mugnier, and of their student Korbinian Brodmann (1908). Less well known are Baillarger's contributions to the semiology of aphasia and the pivotal role he played in the recognition of the localization and lateralization of speech to the left hemisphere. Paul Broca's localization of articulate language to the posterior aspect of the frontal lobes and Marc Dax's discovery that speech is a function of the left hemisphere were vigorously challenged within French academic medicine until 1865, when Baillarger gave two addresses to the Royal Academy of Medicine. In the first address, he described a form of aphasia he called the perversion of language, which we now call fluent aphasia, and reported that aphasic patients can express words or parts of sentences when they are angry or excited, a phenomenon now known as the Baillarger-Jackson principle. In his second address, Baillarger supported the lateralization of speech to the left hemisphere of the brain and referred to this association as Dax's "singular law," and supported the localization of speech to the posterior aspect of the left inferior frontal gyrus. Baillarger's description of the perversion of language and of the influence of emotions on speech presaged the discipline of aphasiology, and his support for the lateralization of speech to the left hemisphere marks the first instance of the unequivocal recognition of asymmetrical hemispheric functions by academic medicine. This article reviews these aspects of Baillargher's career. Critical sections of his papers on cortical structure, aphasia, and functional hemispheric asymmetry are translated by the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Imperial Academy of Medicine of Paris met in the spring of 1865 to discuss the localization of speech. One of the participants was Maximien Parchappe (1800–1866), an alienist whose research interests lay in the cerebral cortex. This article addresses Maximien Parchappe's concept that the cognitive elements of language—such as the translation of thoughts into words, the will to express them, and the means to do so—reside within the cortical gray matter, and that they are integrated through white-matter fibers. In so doing, Parchappe anticipated Carl Wernicke's linking of the posterior aspects of the dominant frontal and temporal lobes in verbal expression, and Jules Dejerine's linking of the angular gyrus and Wernicke's area in the understanding of written language. Functional imaging has revived interest in language as a network of neuronal aggregates and has given new relevance to Parchappe's concept of the functional organization of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: One of the oldest procedures performed by man is trepanning of the bone and yet it was only in the last 40 years that bone marrow aspiration has been used to treat nonunion disorders.Material and Methods: These advances were possible due to improvements in instruments and in techniques to make holes in the bone, an history that began with skull trephinations around 8000-10,000 years ago, and continued with sternum bone marrow injection for trauma resuscitation in the beginning of the twentieth century; this procedure had improved at the beginning of the twenty-first century to allow pelvis bone marrow aspiration for the treatment of nonunion.Results: Trephined skulls from antiquity have been found in many parts of world, showing that trephining was ancient and widespread. Beginning with Neolithic period and the pre-Columbian Andean civilizations, the authors have traced the development of this surgical skill by describing the various surgical tools used to perform holes in the skull. These tools (trephines or trepan) were proposed at the end of the nineteenth century to study the bone marrow. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the sternum became the center of interest for the "in vivo" study of the bone marrow and the fluid injection in the sternum's bone marrow was described for resuscitation from shock during the World War II. With the introduction of plastic catheters and improved cannulation techniques, the need for intraosseous infusion as an alternative route for intravenous access diminished and sometimes abandoned. However, during the mid-1980s, James Orlowski allowed renaissance of the use of intraosseous infusion for paediatric resuscitation. Since then, this technique has become widespread and is now recognized as an alternative to intravenous access in adult emergencies; particularly, the intraosseous access has received class IIA recommendation from the Advanced Trauma Life Support program supported by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and bone marrow infusion is now recommended for "Damage Control" resuscitation. Although the pelvis bone contains half of the body's marrow volume, it was only in 1950 that the pelvis was proposed as a source for bone marrow aspiration and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells to improve healing of fractures.Conclusion: It will be many years before doing holes in the bone as orthopaedic trauma procedure will be relegated to the annals of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurosurgical decisions regarding interventions close to brain areas with language-related functions remain highly challenging because of the risk of postoperative dysfunction. To minimize these risks, improvements in the preoperative mapping of language-related regions are required, especially as space-occupying lesions often lead to altered cortical topography and language area reorganization. The degree of deviation and language area reorganization were investigated in 26 functional magnetic resonance imaging- and magnetoencephalography-dissociable cortical sub-areas displaying language-related activations in each of 18 patients with brain lesions and 3 healthy volunteers (during visual language tasks). Both modalities showed good congruency of the language areas. The mean spatial distance of the centroids and maxima was 9.06 mm and 10.58 mm, respectively, allowing us to define more specific anatomical positions. Postoperatively, language abilities increased in 11% (2 of 18) of the patients, remained unchanged in 83% (15 of 18) of the patients, and decreased in 6% (1 of 18) of the patients, respectively. Signs of language function reorganization detected on both functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography were present in 29% (5 of 17) of the patients. Attenuation of neurovascular coupling was found postoperatively in 17% (3 of 18) of the patients. Monohemispheric language processing cannot be assumed always in patients with brain lesions. The more detailed subdivision of language-relevant brain areas shown in this study can help to achieve more radical tumor resection without postoperative language deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germline and somatic BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA) mutations predict treatment response in patients with epithelial ovarian, peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer (OC), yet only germline testing is routinely pursued or reimbursed at diagnosis. We report our experience with clinical testing of paired tumor and germline DNA for OC mutations. Simultaneous sequencing using the BROCA assay of DNA from paired blood and neoplastic tissue became clinically available at our institution in 2017. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of OC cases tested from 7/2017 to 7/2018. We calculated the rates of known pathogenic germline mutations and actionable somatic mutations, defined as those for which targeted therapies exist. We identified 43 women (36 new diagnoses, seven recurrences) who underwent testing. Average age at diagnosis was 60. OC samples came from surgical specimens in 31 cases (72.1%), from biopsy in 11 cases (25.6%), and from cytology in one case (2.3%). We identified pathogenic germline mutations in six cases (14%), actionable somatic mutations in 15 cases (35%), and both a somatic and germline mutation in one case (2%). BRCA mutations accounted for 59% of all mutations. Of 40 cases with sufficient follow-up, providers documented reviewing results of genetic testing in 34 (85%), which influenced clinical decisions in 12 (30%). Simultaneous germline and tumor sequencing is an efficient way to provide enhanced information to guide the care of OC patients. This approach can identify somatic BRCA mutations at diagnosis, allowing physicians to provide PARP inhibitor maintenance and improve outcomes for those patients. • Potentially actionable mutations were identified in half of ovarian cancer cases: 14% germline, 35% somatic, and 2% both. • Pathogenic BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations accounted for 59% of all actionable mutations identified. • Sequencing results directly influenced clinical care in one fourth of new diagnoses and in one half of recurrences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the involvement of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in language production is undisputed, the role of specific subregions at different representational levels remains unclear. Some studies suggest a division of anterior and posterior regions for semantic and phonological processing, respectively. Crucially, evidence thus far only comes from correlative neuroimaging studies, but the functional relevance of the involvement of these subregions during a given task remains elusive. We applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over anterior and posterior IFG (aIFG/pIFG), and vertex as a control site, while participants performed a category member and a rhyme generation task. We found a functional‐anatomical double dissociation between tasks and subregions. Naming latencies were significantly delayed in the semantic task when rTMS was applied to aIFG (relative to pIFG and vertex). In contrast, we observed a facilitation of naming latencies in the phonological task when rTMS was applied to pIFG (relative to aIFG and vertex). The results provide first causal evidence for the notion that anterior portions of the IFG are selectively recruited for semantic processing while posterior regions are functionally specific for phonological processing during word production. These findings shed light on the functional parcellation of the left IFG in language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The role of left and right hemisphere brain regions in language recovery after stroke-induced aphasia remains controversial. Here, we summarize how neuroimaging studies increase the current understanding of functional interactions, reorganization and plasticity in the language network. We first discuss the temporal dynamics across the time course of language recovery, with a main focus on longitudinal studies from the acute to the chronic phase after stroke. These studies show that the functional contribution of perilesional and spared left hemisphere as well as contralesional right hemisphere regions to language recovery changes over time. The second section introduces critical variables and recent advances on early prediction of subsequent outcome. In the third section, we outline how multi-method approaches that combine neuroimaging techniques with non-invasive brain stimulation elucidate mechanisms of plasticity and reorganization in the language network. These approaches provide novel insights into general mechanisms of plasticity in the language network and might ultimately support recovery processes during speech and language therapy. Finally, the neurobiological correlates of therapy-induced plasticity are discussed. We argue that future studies should integrate individualized approaches that might vary the combination of language therapy with specific non-invasive brain stimulation protocols across the time course of recovery. The way forward will include the combination of such approaches with large data sets obtained from multicentre studies. Highlights • Language recovery is a dynamic process. • Contribution of left and right hemisphere regions changes across time. • Neuroimaging can elucidate neurobiological bases of language recovery. • Treatment-induced plasticity can be mapped with neuroimaging. • Combining imaging and neurostimulation unravels the brain's potential for plasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypsipyla grandella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is found throughout Central and South America, except in Chile. Damage caused by this pest in native trees of the subfamily Swietenoideae (Meliaceae) is so intense and severe that it makes industrial forestry with those species unfeasible. It also may damage fruits and seeds of those trees. Damage to reproductive structures may compromise natural regeneration and impair seedling production. Management tactics for this pest include the use of resistant exotic Meliaceae, such as the Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata M. Roem.) and the African mahogany (Khaya ivorensis). The objective of this work was to report, for the first time, damage to K. ivorensis fruits and seeds by H. grandella in Brazil. The study was carried out in a plantation for sawwood production, with about 73,000 trees of K. ivorensis in 175 ha in Corinto, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Ripe and almost ripe bored fruits were collected from the soil beneath 8-yr-old trees in May 2018. The total number of fruits and seeds damaged, the numbers of larvae, pupae, and adults of H. grandella per fruit, the presence of other species, and behavior of this pest were observed. Ten fruits bored by H. grandella were collected. The fruits were damaged internally by larvae of this pest, and half of them had exit holes. Each fruit had, on average, 33.6 seeds, with 99.4% of the seeds damaged, plus 4.2 H. grandella at different development stages. Some fruits did not have the borer, but they were damaged and had the characteristic exit holes of this species. The average number of larvae per fruit was 3.4, with up to 13 larvae in a single fruit. The damage in African mahogany shoots reported in 2016, and the current damage on fruits and seeds show that resistance of K. ivorensis to H. grandella has been broken, probably due to selective pressure over the large area planted with this tree in Brazil. African mahogany plantation viability in Brazil will be affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Broca's aphasia, non-fluent aphasia, encompasses articulation disorders, paraphasia, agrammatism, anomie, and discrete language comprehension disorders.1 It is a frustrating condition with extensive psychological, familial, and social impact.2 The reports of people who have already recovered or can express themselves are essential to understanding and increasing knowledge about the experience of living with Broca's aphasia,3 what promotes a better adjustment and optimization of the care.. Living with Aphasia: a framework for Outcome Measurement (A-FROM)4 is a framework that allows organize thinking about the impact of living with aphasia and includes four key domains: Communication and language environment; Language and related impairments; Personal identity, attitudes and feelings, and Participation in life situations.4 Nursing intervention is central to optimizing recovery and positively influencing the experience of successfully living with this clinical condition.5 Objectives To map and identify the scientific evidence about the experience of people who lived through a period of Broca's aphasia, according to their perspective. Method A Scoping Review was performed following the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. The review was based on the research question "How does the person report the experience of having lived through a period of Broca's aphasia?", formulated according to the PCC strategy: P=Population (adults who experienced Broca's aphasia); C=Concept (report of Broca's aphasia experience); C=Context (ambulatory and hospital). The search was carried out in the electronic databases MEDLINE®, CINAHL®, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and Scopus in April 2020. The selection of articles was performed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Primary studies, theoretical articles, literature reviews, and reports about Broca's aphasia experiences in English, Spanish and Portuguese, were included, with no time limit. The review followed the PRISMA-ScR EQUATOR checklist. Results and Discussion 15 articles published between 1961 and 2020 were included. Data obtained on Broca's aphasia experience were grouped according to the key domains of the A-FROM tool4. Information related to Personal identity, attitudes and feelings, and Participation in life situations were the most cited in the literature, followed by Language and related impairments and Communication and language environment. Conclusions and implications for knowledge development This review highlighted the influence that health professionals, therapeutic interventions, spirituality, hope, context, interactions, and psychosocial factors have on experiencing this clinical condition. It is essential to continue investigating how people report the experience of having lived through a period of Broca's aphasia to improve the quality of care provided to people with this clinical condition and consequently optimize their well-being and quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To study resting cerebral blood flow in children and adults with developmental stuttering. Methods We acquired pulsed arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging data in 26 participants with stuttering and 36 healthy, fluent controls. While covarying for age, sex, and IQ, we compared perfusion values voxel-wise across diagnostic groups and assessed correlations of perfusion with stuttering severity within the stuttering group and with measures of motor speed in both groups. Results We detected lower regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF) at rest in the stuttering group compared with healthy controls in Broca's area bilaterally and the superior frontal gyrus. rCBF values in Broca's area bilaterally correlated inversely with the severity of stuttering and extended posteriorly into other portions of the language loop. We also found increased rCBF in cerebellar nuclei and parietal cortex in the stuttering group compared with healthy controls. Findings were unchanged in child-only analyses and when excluding participants with comorbid illnesses or those taking medication. Conclusions rCBF is reduced in Broca's region in persons who stutter. More severe stuttering is associated with even greater reductions in rCBF to Broca's region, additive to the underlying putative trait reduction in rCBF relative to control values. Moreover, a greater abnormality in rCBF in the posterior language loop is associated with more severe symptoms, suggesting that a common pathophysiology throughout the language loop likely contributes to stuttering severity. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1865-1874, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Localizing expressive language function has been challenging using the conventional magnetoencephalography (MEG) source modeling methods. The present MEG study presents a new accurate and precise approach in localizing the language areas using a high-resolution MEG source imaging method. Methods In 32 patients with brain tumors and/or epilepsies, an object-naming task was used to evoke MEG responses. Our Fast-VESTAL source imaging method was then applied to the MEG data in order to localize the brain areas evoked by the object-naming task. Results The Fast-VESTAL results showed that Broca’s area was accurately localized to the pars opercularis (BA 44) and/or the pars triangularis (BA 45) in all patients. Fast-VESTAL also accurately localized Wernicke’s area to the posterior aspect of the superior temporal gyri in BA 22, as well as several additional brain areas. Furthermore, we found that the latency of the main peak of the response in Wernicke’s area was significantly earlier than that of Broca’s area. Conclusion In all patients, Fast-VESTAL analysis established accurate and precise localizations of Broca’s area, as well as other language areas. The responses in Wernicke’s area were also shown to significantly precede those of Broca’s area. Significance The present study demonstrates that using Fast-VESTAL, MEG can serve as an accurate and reliable functional imaging tool for presurgical mapping of language functions in patients with brain tumors and/or epilepsies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broca coined the neologism “aphemia” to describe a syndrome consisting of a loss of the ability to speak without impairment of language and paralysis of the faciolingual territories in actions unrelated to speech, such as protruding the tongue or pursing the lips. Upon examining the brains of patients with aphemia, Broca concluded that the minimum possible lesion responsible for aphemia localized to the posterior left inferior frontal gyrus and lower portion of the middle frontal gyrus. A review of Broca’s writings led us to conclude that (a) Broca localized speech, not language, to the left hemisphere, (b) Broca’s aphemia is a form of apraxia, (c) Broca’s aphemia is not, therefore, a terminological forerunner of aphasia, and (d) Broca was an outspoken equipotentialist concerning the cerebral localization of language. Broca’s claim about the role of the left hemisphere in the organization of speech places him as the legitimate forebear of the two most outstanding achievements of Liepmann’s work, namely, the concepts of apraxia and of a left hemisphere specialization for action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aphasia is one of the most common deficits occurring after stroke that remains, at least in part, even after speech therapy and medication treatment. Non-invasive direct current transcranial stimulation (tDCS) is used to improve brain function by induction of neural plasticity. This study investigated the effect of bi-hemispheric tDCS on verbal function in patients with stroke-induced Broca's aphasia. Thirty patients with Broca's aphasia due to ischemic stroke, referred to an academic hospital in Guilan Province, Iran, in 2019-20, were studied. Patients were divided into two groups receiving seven sessions of either active or sham tDCS. The tDCS sessions began 10–20 days after stroke onset. The severity of aphasia before and after the intervention and a 3-month follow-up were assessed by the Persian version of the Western Battery-1 test (P-WAB-1). T-test, ANOVA, and Repeated Measurement were used for data analyses. The mean P-WAB-1 score was significantly higher in the intervention group both early after tDCS (P ≤ 0.0001) and on the 3-months follow-up (P ≤ 0001). Linear regression analysis indicated that tDCS had a positive effect on verbal performance scores independent of age, sex, and lesion volume (Regression coefficient = −33.3). Bi-hemispheric tDCS effectively improves verbal function in Broca's aphasia in the sub-acute phase of ischemic stroke. • Transcranial direct current stimulation ameliorated post-stroke Broca's aphasia. • Bi-hemispheric tDCS on F3 and F4 zone is effective in improving verbal function. • The verbal expression score increased after 7 sessions of tDCS on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), a new decade in the study of language has started. NIBS allows for testing the functional relevance of language-related brain activation and enables the researcher to investigate how neural activation changes in response to focal perturbations. This review focuses on the application of NIBS in the healthy brain. First, some basic mechanisms will be introduced and the prerequisites for carrying out NIBS studies of language are addressed. The next section outlines how NIBS can be used to characterize the contribution of the stimulated area to a task. In this context, novel approaches such as multifocal transcranial magnetic stimulation and the condition-and-perturb approach are discussed. The third part addresses the combination of NIBS and neuroimaging in the study of plasticity. These approaches are particularly suited to investigate short-term reorganization in the healthy brain and may inform models of language recovery in post-stroke aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combinatorial syntax has been shown to be underpinned by cortical key regions such as Broca's area and temporal cortices, and by subcortical structures such as the striatum. The cortical regions are connected via several cortico-to-cortical tracts impacting syntactic processing (e.g., the arcuate) but it remains unclear whether and how the striatum can be integrated into this cortex-centered syntax network. Here, we used a systematic stepwise approach to investigate the existence and syntactic function of an additional deep Broca-striatum pathway. We first asked 15 healthy controls and 12 patients with frontal/striatal lesions to perform three syntax tests. The results obtained were subjected to voxelbased lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) to provide an anatomo-functional approximation of the pathway. The significant VLSM clusters were then overlapped with the probability maps of four corticocortical language tracts generated for 12 healthy participants (arcuate, extreme capsule fiber system, uncinate, aslant), including a probabilistic Broca-striatum tract. Finally, we carried out quantitative analyses of the relationship between the lesion load along the tracts and syntactic processing, by calculating tract-lesion overlap for each patient and analyzing the correlation with syntactic data. Our findings revealed a Broca-striatum tract linking BA45 with the left caudate head and overlapping with VLSM voxel clusters relating to complex syntax. The lesion load values for this tract were correlated with complex syntax scores, whereas no such correlation was observed for the other tracts. These results extend current syntax-network models, by adding a deep "Broca-caudate pathway," and are consistent with functional accounts of frontostriatal circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tetrastichus howardi Olliff (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) parasitizes the larvae, pupae and adults of Diatraea saccharalis, and therefore seems to be a suitable candidate for the biological control of D. saccharalis in commercial sugarcane in Brazil and other industries where this stem borer is an important pest. The aim of our study was to analyze the biological characteristics of this natural enemy on sugarcane borer. The research was conducted in the Laboratory of Entomology/Biological Control (LECOBIOL) at the "Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias" of the "Universidade da Grande Dourados (UFGD)" in Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil. Ten of each of the following life stages: 24-h old egg masses, fifth instar larvae, pupae and adults of D. saccharalis were isolated and exposed to parasitism by seven T. howardi parasitoids females. Parasitism rates by T. howardi of the adult, fifth instar larva and pupal stages of D. saccharalis were 2%, 56% to 68%, respectively. Emergence rates of 14%, 100% and 100% were recorded for adult, fifth instar larvae, and adults, respectively. The duration of each life cycle (egg to adult) of T. howardi on the pupae, fifth instar larvae and adults of D. saccharalis were 20 ± 0.03, 27.00 ± 0.01, 33 ± 0.00 days, respectively. Fecundity and the female-based sex ratio of T. howardi were greatest in the pupae of D. saccharalis, at 70.44 ± 5.22 and 0.85 ± 0.41, respectively. Parasitism and the emergence of T. howardi from the fifth instar larvae, pupae and adults of D. saccharalis revealed the ability of this natural enemy to establish itself in culture, even in the absence of host pupae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though activation of Broca’s region in the combinatorial processing of symbols (language, music) has been revealed by neurometabolic studies, most previous neurophysiological research found the earliest grammar indices in the temporal cortex, with inferior-frontal generators becoming active at relatively late stages. We use the attention- and task-free syntactic mismatch negativity (sMMN) event-related potential (ERP) to measure rapid and automatic sensitivity of the human brain to grammatical information in participants’ native language (French). Further, sources underlying the MMN were estimated by applying the Parametrical Empirical Bayesian (PEB) approach, with the Multiple Sparse Priors (MSP) technique. Results showed reliable grammar-related activation focused on Broca’s region already in the 150–190 ms time window, providing robust documentation of its involvement in the first stages of syntactic processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Objective: The aim of this follow-up study is to describe the clinical and neuroradiological findings in an exceptional case presenting a marked discrepancy between oral and written language impairment. Methods: In this 22-year-old right-handed patient in-depth neurolinguistic investigations were, conducted 5, 15 and 27 weeks after head trauma inducing a left frontotemporoparietal traumatic brain lesion. Oral as well as written communication is qualitatively analyzed. Results: Initially, the aphasia profile was primarily characterized by a striking dissociation between oral and written output. In the acute phase, neurolinguistic findings were consistent with phonological jargon aphasia selectively affecting oral output. By contrast, no fluent aphasia symptoms were found in written output. The patient wrote slowly and intelligibly but written output was distorted by agrammatism. As such, typical fluent aphasia symptoms marked oral output, while nonfluent aphasia symptoms characterized written output. During longitudinal follow-up the dissociation between oral and written output resolved. Phonological errors and self-corrections in speech indicated an evolution to conduction aphasia. Conclusions: The exceptional aphasia profile of this patient at 5 weeks posttrauma consists of a unique typological combination of typical fluent, Wernicke-like symptoms confined to oral output and typical nonfluent, Broca-like symptoms in writing. This case study shows the existence of a layered semantic system and an autonomic orthographic lexicon. Follow-up results revealed the impact of a controller system, by means of which the patient could sidestep disturbed phonology at the expense of communicative content. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the nineteenth century, French scientific institutions became interested in young “mental calculators,” arithmetical prodigies able to quickly and accurately perform complex mental calculations. The first scientists to study mental calculators were phrenologists who sought to prove the existence of a calculating organ in the frontal lobe. Paul Broca introduced one such mental calculator, Jacques Inaudi, to the Anthropological Society of Paris in 1880. Broca attributed extraordinary faculty for mental calculation to memory functioning (the psychological hypothesis) rather than physiological difference (the phrenological hypothesis). In 1892, prominent French Academy of Sciences member Jean-Martin Charcot produced a noteworthy study of Inaudi on the organization’s behalf. Charcot observed that Inaudi called upon auditory memory rather than visual memory in his mental calculations, unlike most mental calculators who preceded him. Like Broca, Charcot was skeptical of the phrenological hypothesis, though he noted that Inaudi’s skull was markedly plagiocephalic. Interestingly, anthropological examination of Inaudi is consistent with the themes of modern cognitive neuroscience. Thus, Charcot seems to have anticipated present research on the localization of mental calculation and memory for numbers.1. 1The Academy of Sciences, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV (1638–1715) with the goal of contributing to the advancement and application of the sciences in France, was one of the earliest European scientific institutions. As a prestigious society, it played an active role in defining scientific and technological research policy as well as drafting and publishing official reports. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The aim of this paper was to show the role of Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke in a concept of a cerebral localization of language, built on lesion studies of patients with aphasia or language deficits and comparative data in the outgoing 19th century. Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke, an American Medical Doctor living in Paris, tried to uncover the morphological basis of language and aphasia in her husband's laboratory, by using the most sophisticated methods available at her time including secondary (Wallerian) degeneration and serial sectioning. Her anatomical concept of the lesions involved in Broca's aphasia was very precise and might have been a reason for her conflict with more holistic researchers, such as Pierre Marie. Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke contributed actively and substantially to a concept of language and aphasia which was explicitly stated as shared contribution by her husband Joseph Jules Dejerine. Their so-called localizationistic concept in fact limited the importance of circumscribed cortical lesions to Broca's area, emphasized the role of subcortical structures in the genesis of aphasia, and remained accurate in certain ways with our current understanding of language as a complex functional system based on different interconnecting brain regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objectives: Few studies have comprehensively tested all ovarian cancer patients for BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) mutations. We sought to determine if clinically identified mutation carriers differed in clinical characteristics and outcomes from mutation carriers not identified during routine clinical care. Methods: We included women with ovarian, tubal or peritoneal carcinoma. BROCA, an assay using targeted capture and massively parallel sequencing was used to identify mutations in BRCA1/2 and 19 other tumor suppressor genes. We identified subjects with BRCA1/2 mutations using BROCA that had not previously received standard genetic testing (BROCA, n =37) and compared them to subjects with BRCA1/2 mutations identified during routine clinical care (known, n =70), and to those wildtype for 21 genes using BROCA (wildtype, n =291). Results: BROCA mutation carriers were older than known carriers, median age of 58 (range 41–77), vs. 51 (range 33-76, p =0.003, Mann–Whitney). 58/70 (82.9%) of known carriers had a strong family history, compared with 15/37 (40.5%) of BROCA carriers, p <0.0001, (Fisher''s Exact). Median overall survival was significantly worse for BROCA mutation carriers compared to known mutation carriers, (45 vs. 93months, p <0.0001, HR 3.47 (1.79–6.72), Log-rank test). The improved survival for BRCA1/2 mutation carriers (known and BROCA) compared with wildtype cases (69 vs. 44months, p =0.0001, HR 0.58 (0.43–0.77), Log-rank test) was driven by known mutation carriers. Conclusions: Older age, absence of a strong family history, and poor survival are all associated with decreased clinical identification of inherited BRCA1/2 mutations in women with ovarian cancer. Using age and family history to direct genetic testing will miss a significant percentage of mutation carriers. Testing should be initiated at the time of diagnosis to maximize identification of mutations and minimize survival bias. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As of spring 2011, 150 years have passed since the death of one of the most famous neurological patients of the nineteenth century. A Frenchman, “Monsieur Leborgne” also known by the nickname “Tan,” was hospitalized due to an almost complete loss of speech. His case was presented in 1861, during a seating of the Société d'Anthropologie de Paris by a physician, Pierre Paul Broca (1824–1880), who used this occasion to report that he had discovered, in the middle part of patient's left frontal lobe, the cortical speech center. This area was later named “Broca's area.” Both the patient and his medical records were the subject of numerous descriptions and citations in the medical literature. The patient's full identity and social background has remained a mystery until now. This article presents biographical data concerning Leborgne and his family based on archive registers in France. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: NIRS studies were performed on 15 normal right-handed adults to understand the hemodynamic response of the fronto-temporal cortex in response to language paradigms. A 32-channel NIRS system (Imagent ISS Inc.) was used to perform NIRS studies in response to word expression and word reception language paradigms. Activation, functional connectivity, and lateralization analyses were carried out and correlated across all subjects and for each paradigm/stimuli. It was observed that Broca''s region plays a major role and Wernicke''s region plays a supporting role when responding to word expression paradigm (as observed in past NIRS studies). On the contrary, it is the right homolog of Wernicke''s (and partly right homolog of Broca''s region) that plays a major role during word reception of comprehensible text (as observed from fMRI studies). This is the first NIRS study that images the entire fronto-temporal regions to understand language from various analyses, towards future work in epileptic/schizophrenic populations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The importance of the left inferior pre-frontal cortex (LIPC) for speech production was first popularized by Paul Broca, providing a cornerstone of behavioral neurology and laying the foundation for future research examining brain-behavior relationships. Although Broca’s findings were rigorously challenged, comprehensive contradictory evidence was not published until 130years later. This evidence suggested that damage to left anterior insula was actually the best predictor of motor speech impairment. Using high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with chronic stroke, we reveal that LIPC involvement more accurately predicts acquired motor speech impairment than insula damage. Perfusion-weighted MRI provides complementary evidence, highlighting how damage to left inferior pre-frontal gyrus often includes insula involvement, and vice versa. Our findings suggest that Broca’s initial conclusions associating acquired motor speech impairment with LIPC damage remain valid nearly 150years after his initial report on this issue. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There are few iconic publications in the annals of clinical neuroscience that have had the impact of Paul Broca's 1861 paper that appeared in the Bulletin de la Société Anatomique Broca (Bulletin Society Anatomique, 6:330-357, ). It was, however, by no means his last word on the matter of language localization, specifically, or on the overarching principle of regional specialization of brain function. Thus we comment on English translations of two of his works: the original paper and another from 1865. Although the 1861 paper has received the most credit, his manuscript 4 years later and based on a much larger case series was the first to state based on empirical observation that the left frontal region was responsible for articulated speech. Moreover, his observations of aphasia recovery reported in this later work led to his own hypotheses on the importance of cerebral reorganization after injury and to the differences in reacquisition of adult language vis-à-vis the nature of initial language development that were verified a century later. He also proposed a method of language remediation whose efficacy was not established for another 100 years. Thus Broca's contributions to the contemporary study of aphasia reach far beyond his initial case presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Purpose: The left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) has been felt to link receptive with expressive language areas. The latter is located in the pars opercularis (Broca''s area) of the left inferior frontal gyrus. We report the findings with tractography of the SLF in a group of normal volunteers. Methods and materials: The data and subsidiary results of 12 normal right-handed volunteers who participated in an institutional review board-approved diffusion tensor imaging study were evaluated. The SLF fibers were obtained bilaterally placing a region of interest at the triangular-shaped region lateral to each of the corticospinal tracts, in a coronal plane along the rostral aspect of the corpus callosum. A sagittal fractional anisotropy image was used to determine the rostral endpoint of the SLF fibers in the white matter pertaining to specific gyri or pars of the frontal lobe. The SLF projection to Broca''s area was ranked qualitatively as none, minimal, most or all. Findings are presented in descriptive statistics. Results: The SLF projection to Broca''s areas was absent in seven subjects (58.3%) and minimal in five (41.6%). SLF''s rostral end points were found uniquely or mainly in the precentral gyrus in 100% of cases. Conclusion: The SLF was found connecting the posterior language areas to the precentral gyrus and only marginally in some cases to the canonical Broca''s area. This finding is consistent with reports describing lack of correlation between lateralization of the SLF and language areas. The understanding of language circuitry is beginning to emerge with the use of tractography. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this issue of Neuron , Long et al. (2016) employ a novel technique of intraoperative cortical cooling in humans during speech production. They demonstrate that cooling Broca’s area interferes with speech timing but not speech quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari), is the most devastating insect pest of coffee throughout the world. Adult females bore a hole in the coffee berry, where they deposit their eggs; upon hatching, larvae feed on the coffee seeds inside the berry, thus reducing yield and quality of the marketable product. The insect spends most of its life inside the coffee berry, making it extremely difficult to control. This paper presents a short review of the literature dealing with natural enemies of the coffee berry borer, on the possible use of fungal endophytes as a biocontrol strategy, and on factors that might be involved in attracting the insect towards the coffee plant. The paper identifies some areas where research efforts should be focused to increase the chances of successfully developing an effective pest management strategy against the coffee berry borer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes the impact of the coffee berry borer (CBB), Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari), in Colombia. In the explanation, the general characteristics of the traditional and technified phases of coffee production in the municipality of Líbano, Tolima, are identified. The article answers the following questions: What policies and phytosanitary practices were implemented during the expansion of the pest during the 1990s? What was the social, cultural, and productive impact of the CBB? The results indicate that coffee farmers did not respond by adopting new techniques but instead learned to co-exist with the plague. They also show a reduction in the amount of coffee produced as well as farmers abandoning coffee production. The most widely adopted practices were cultural control (Re-Re) and chemical control. The abandonment of coffee farming was not due just to the CBB outbreak in the 1990s, however; it was also due to the social and economic impact of institutional policies, the low profitability of the technified coffee production, and the levels of indebtedness among coffee farmers. This study, which employs an historical-anthropological approach, is based both on fieldwork undertaken in the region as well as bibliographic sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a three generation pedigree with 11 of 22 affected with a variant form of rolandic epilepsy, speech impairment, oromotor apraxia, and cognitive deficit. The core features comprised nocturnal rolandic seizures, interictal centrotemporal spike waves with early age of onset and late age of offset. The transmission of the phenotype was consistent with autosomal dominant inheritance, with variable expressivity but no evidence of anticipation. We found evidence that the seizure and speech traits may be dissociated. No abnormalities were found by cytogenetic analysis. Linkage analysis excluded loci at 11p, 15q, 16p12, and Xq22 for related phenotypes, suggesting genetic heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the evaluation treatment and improvement of a patient with Broca's aphasia. A specific form of speech therapy, based on the peculiarities of the clinical picture of Broca's aphasia, was applied during one year. Our results have shown that this form of therapy leads to a significant improvement of the communicative abilities, even in the cases with severe form of aphasia. The importance of application of the specific methods and therapies for the rehabilitation of aphasic patients is pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The brains of three Alzheimer patients aged 93, 94, and 104 years old were analyzed. Although cell death was apparent in different cortices, the prefrontal cortex and the Broca's appeared to be hit hardest. The different CA areas of the hippocampal formation all displayed equivalent degrees of cell death but the entorhinal areas showed the most severe degree of cell degeneration. Both apoptosis and necrosis were observed in the different cerebral regions of these very old patients, as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Investigations of language processing in aphasia have increasingly implicated performance factors such as slowed activation and/or rapid decay of linguistic information. This approach is supported by studies utilizing a communication system (SentenceShaper™) which functions as a “processing prosthesis.” The system may reduce the impact of processing limitations by allowing repeated refreshing of working memory and by increasing the opportunity for aphasic subjects to monitor their own speech. Some aphasic subjects are able to produce markedly more structured speech on the system than they are able to produce spontaneously, and periods of largely independent home use of SentenceShaper have been linked to treatment effects, that is, to gains in speech produced without the use of the system. The purpose of the current study was to follow up on these studies with a new group of subjects. A second goal was to determine whether repeated, unassisted elicitations of the same narratives at baseline would give rise to practice effects, which could undermine claims for the efficacy of the system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To avoid neurological impairment during surgery near language-related eloquent brain areas, we performed presurgical functional brain mapping with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 172 patients using language tasks. For MEG localizations, we used either a moving equivalent-current dipole fit or a current–density reconstruction using a minimum variance beamformer with a spatial filter algorithm. We localized the Wernicke and Broca language areas for every patient. We integrated the results into a frameless stereotaxy system. To visualize the results in the navigation microscope during surgery, we superimposed the fMRI and MEG findings on the brain surface. MEG and fMRI results differed in 4% of cases, and in 19%, one modality showed activation but not the other. In the vicinity of large gliomas, the BOLD (blood oxygenation level-dependent) effect was suppressed in 53% of our patients. Of the 124 patients who had surgery, only 7 patients (5.6%) experienced a transient language deterioration, which resolved in all cases. We used MEG and fMRI to show different aspects of brain activity and to establish validation between MEG and fMRI. We conclude that measurement by both MEG and fMRI increases the degree of reliability of language area localization and that the combination of fMRI and MEG is useful for presurgical localization of language-related eloquent cortex. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

H. hampei (coffee berry borer) is the most important pest in the coffee for over the world and Cuba although it's recent introduction. To characterize their bioecology according to the conditions of one of the more important coffee regions, the following studies were made: the population's dynamics during the development of the fruits, proportion among development states and among sexes, number of generations and, duration of the cycle of the pest. The studies began starting from the first damages in fruits corresponding to the first blooming, until the beginning of the crop, being counted the states of development of the coffee berry borer present in their interior. Results: the first affectations happen 107 dppf (green fruits, 11 % dry weight) staying until the moment of the crop; 137-152 later days to the first blooming (ldfb) (green fruits, 42 % dw) the first ovipositions takes place; completing their cycle the first generation 167 ldfb (less than 30 days) and they become predominant inside the fruits the immature development states. During the whole development of the fruits in the plants three generations arise. The proportion between males and females is of 15:1, 14:1 and 21:1, for each one of the generations. In the moment of the crop the average of biological states for fruit is of 4,93; this represents an increment of 624 % with regard to the first generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop and test a novel fMRI compatible comprehensive and expressive language task that reliably and predictably activates both Wernicke's and Broca's cortical brain regions, respectively, and has utility for the determination of hemispheric language dominance. Methods: Ten healthy men (seven) and women (three) were administered a task based on the television game Jeopardy that was adapted for fMRI presentation. The task was programmed using E-PRIME software and designed to run as an event-related experiment. The study was conducted on 3 T MRI Phillips Intera scanner, and data was anlysed using Brain Voyager QX. All subjects provided written informed consent. Results: The Jeopardy task produced robust left hemisphere activation in regions corresponding to Wernicke's and Broca's areas. Conclusion: This novel fMRI compatible task (Jeopardy) reliably maps both Broca's and Wernicke's areas with robust hemispheric lateralization. It is potentially useful in language localization studies as it offers advantages over conventional procedures and other fMRI tasks by virtue of being non-invasive and mapping both language areas in one experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can interfere with linguistic performance when delivered over language areas. At low frequency (1 Hz), rTMS is assumed to decrease cortical excitability; however, the degree of TMS effect on cortical language areas may depend on the localization of the stimulation coil with respect to the inter-individual anatomo-functional variations. Hence, we aimed at investigating individual brain areas involved in semantic and phonological auditory processes. We hypothesized that active rTMS targeted over Wernicke''s area might modify the performance during a language-fragment-detection task. Sentences in native or foreign languages were presented to 12 right-handed male healthy volunteers during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). 3D-functional maps localized the posterior temporal activation (Wernicke) in each subject and MRI anatomical cortical landmarks were used to define Broca''s pars opercularis (F3Op). A frameless stereotaxy system was used to guide the TMS coil position over Wernicke''s and F3Op areas in each subject. Active and placebo randomized rTMS sessions were applied at 1 Hz, 110% of motor threshold, during the same language-fragment-detection task. Accuracy and response time (RT) were recorded. RT was significantly decreased by active rTMS compared to placebo over Wernicke''s area, and was more decreased for native than for foreign languages. No significant RT change was observed for F3Op area. rTMS conditions did not impair participants'' accuracy. Thus, low-frequency rTMS over Wernicke''s area can speed-up the response to a task tapping on native language perception in healthy volunteers. This individually-guided stimulation study confirms that facilitatory effects are not confined to high-frequency rTMS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We describe a series of 12 patients who suffered from lesions adjacent to the classic Broca and Wernicke areas and were examined by magnetoencephalography (MEG) for presurgical language localization while performing a protocol of different language tasks. In these patients very large MEG activity of up to 5pT was observed, which was located not only in the adjacent language processing brain areas but also in more distant areas, which are part of the language processing neuronal network. The high amplitude and the focal spatial extent of this activity allowed MEG source localization from the unaveraged data. In nine patients sources of this high amplitude activity were even found in the homologous language areas on the contralateral, the nondominant side of the brain. The physiological interrelationship of these large MEG changes needs to be investigated in more detail in further studies especially in the context of possible mechanisms for brain plasticity to overcome inhibitory activity of the impaired language area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting was used to examine the genetic variability and biogeography of the most important insect pest of coffee, Coffea arabica L., the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari). H. hampei samples (n = 101) from 17 countries on three continents were examined. Only 26 unique fingerprints (haplotypes) were discovered among all samples. Genetic variability was extremely low (10% average polymorphism per sample), but genetic differentiation was high (ΦST = 0.464). The distribution of the fingerprints and their genetic relatedness to each other suggested that a West African source population invaded both Asia and America, Three distinct lines entered the Americas through either separate introductions or a single introduction of multiple lines. At least two were first introduced to Brazil and subsequently dispersed throughout the Americas. The third was discovered only in Peru and Colombia. Observations were consistent with the high rate of inbreeding suspected of this pest. With such high inbreeding, undesirable mutations, such as those conferring insecticide resistance, might rapidly become homozygous in H. hampei. However, the low genetic variability observed also suggests that this pest may lack the genetic variability necessary to respond to an intensive control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe here a new way of obtaining maps of connectivity in the human brain based on interregional correlations of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal during natural viewing conditions. We propose that anatomical connections are reflected in BOLD signal correlations during natural brain dynamics. This may provide a powerful approach to chart connectivity, more so than that based on the ‘resting state’ of the human brain, and it may complement diffusion tensor imaging. Our approach relies on natural brain dynamics and is therefore experimentally unbiased and independent of hypothesis-driven, specialized stimuli. It has the advantage that natural viewing leads to considerably stronger cortical activity than rest, thus facilitating detection of weaker connections. To validate our technique, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record BOLD signal while volunteers freely viewed a movie that was interrupted by resting periods. We used independent component analysis (ICA) to segregate cortical areas before characterizing the dynamics of their BOLD signal during free viewing and rest. Natural viewing and rest each revealed highly specific correlation maps, which reflected known anatomical connections. Examples are homologous regions in visual and auditory cortices in the two hemispheres and the language network consisting of Wernicke''s area, Broca''s area, and a premotor region. Correlations between regions known to be directly connected were always substantially higher than between nonconnected regions. Furthermore, compared to rest, natural viewing specifically increased correlations between anatomically connected regions while it decreased correlations between nonconnected regions. Our findings therefore demonstrate that natural viewing conditions lead to particularly specific interregional correlations and thus provide a powerful environment to reveal anatomical connectivity in vivo. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In 1877 Thomas Barlow, a London physician, published a remarkable case of functional recovery of speech following brain damage. It involved a 10-year-old boy who had lost his speech, regained it, and lost it again before he died from a disorder that affected his heart and produced embolisms that subsequently affected other organs, including his brain. Examination of the boy’s brain revealed two focal regions of softening; one that affected Broca’s area and the left facial-motor area, and another, which occurred weeks later, in the homologous regions of the right hemisphere. Although Barlow was most concerned with motor deficits, others at the turn of the century began to cite this case as strong evidence that the corresponding region of the right hemisphere can take over speech functions for Broca’s area on the left. Whether this case really provides good support for functional takeover or vicariation theory is critically evaluated in the light of contemporary research, including PET scan studies involving damage to Broca’s speech region. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of the present study was the investigation of neural correlates of music processing with fMRI. Chord sequences were presented to the participants, infrequently containing unexpected musical events. These events activated the areas of Broca and Wernicke, the superior temporal sulcus, Heschl''s gyrus, both planum polare and planum temporale, as well as the anterior superior insular cortices. Some of these brain structures have previously been shown to be involved in music processing, but the cortical network comprising all these structures has up to now been thought to be domain-specific for language processing. To what extent this network might also be activated by the processing of non-linguistic information has remained unknown. The present fMRI-data reveal that the human brain employs this neuronal network also for the processing of musical information, suggesting that the cortical network known to support language processing is less domain-specific than previously believed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Purpose: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using two language-comprehension tasks was evaluated to determine its ability to lateralize language processing and identify regions that must be spared in surgery. Methods: Two parallel cognitive language tasks, one using auditory input and the other visual input, were tested in a group of control subjects and in temporal lobe epilepsy patients who were candidates for surgical intervention. The patient studies provide an opportunity to compare functional MRI language localization with that obtained using Wada testing and electrocorticography. All of the patients in this study underwent all three procedures and a battery of neuropsychological testing. Such studies provide an opportunity not only to validate the fMRI findings but also, by comparing the patient results with those obtained in control subjects, to provide insight into the impact of a pathology such as epilepsy on cortical organization or functional patterns of activation. Results: The results reveal both modality-dependent and modality-independent language-processing patterns for visual versus auditory task presentation. The visual language task activated distinct sites in Broca's area, BA (Brodmann area) 44 that were not activated in the auditory language task. The auditory language task strongly activated contralateral right BA22-21 area (homologous to Wernicke's area on the left). Language lateralization scores were significantly stronger for visual than for auditory task presentation. The conjunction of activation from the two different input modalities (modality-independent areas) likely highlights regions that perform more abstract computations (e.g., syntactic or pragmatic processing) in language processing. Modality-specific areas (e.g., right Wernicke, left fusiform gyrus, Broca BA44, supramarginal gyrus), appear to cope with the computations relevant to making contact with these more abstract dimensions. Patients showed recruitment of contralateral homologous language areas (p < 0.005) that was significantly above that found in a normal control group. Extra- and intraoperative cortical stimulations were concordant with the fMRI data in eight of 10 cases. The fMRI lateralization scores were also consistent with the Wada testing in 8/10 patients. Conclusions: The fMRI results demonstrate that the epileptic brain may be a progressive model for cortical plasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1861, Paul Broca presented a case of a patient who had almost completely lost the ability of speech production. This patient is known as “Monsieur Leborgne” alias “Tan.” In describing the history of his disease, Broca reported that Leborgne had spent a total of 21 years in hospitals. The article features new information on the history of Leborgne's hospitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on a research conducted in order to describe the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei (H. hampei) that is the most economically important coffee pest worldwide. It describes the hole bored by colonizing females in the coffee berry and larval feeding on the coffee seed which reduces both yield and quality of coffee. The study revealed the occurrence of H. hampei in the district of Kona on the island of Hawaii.

The article presents a case study of 24-year-old previously healthy man who was admitted to the hospital with a 4-day history of fever and aphasia. The case is considered as the second one of typhoid fever in an adult presenting with Broca's aphasia in the absence of brain abscess. The authors also discuss the lack of information on the pathogenesis of neurologic manifestations in typhoid fever particularly when patients present with focal manifestations in the absence of cerebral abscess.