An Electrophysiological Study of Cognitive and Emotion Processing in Type I Chiari Malformation.

An Electrophysiological Study of Cognitive and Emotion Processing in Type I Chiari Malformation. Cerebellum. 2018 Jan 30;: Authors: Houston JR, Hughes ML, Lien MC, Martin BA, Loth F, Luciano MG, Vorster S, Allen PA Abstract Type I Chiari malformation (CMI) is a neurological condition in which the cerebellar tonsils descend into the cervical spinal subarachnoid space resulting in cervico-medullary compression. Early case-control investigations have indicated cognitive deficits in the areas of attention, memory, processing speed, and visuospatial function. The present study further examined cognitive and emotional processing deficits associated with CMI using a dual-task paradigm. Nineteen CMI patients were recruited during pre-surgical consultation and 19 matched control participants identified emotional expressions in separate single and asynchronous dual-task designs. To extend earlier behavioral studies of cognitive effects in CMI, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in the dual-task design. Though response times were slower for CMI patients across the two tasks, behavioral and ERP analyses indicated that patients did not differ from matched controls in the ability to allocate attentional resources between the two tasks. P1 ERP component analyses provided no indication of an emotional arousal deficit in our CMI sample while P3 ERP component analyses suggested a CMI-related deficit in emotional regulation. P3 analysis also y...
Source: Cerebellum - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cerebellum Source Type: research