Neurología : publicación oficial de la Sociedad Española de Neurología
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Parkinson disease is a neurodegenerative condition involving motor, cognitive, and linguistic deficits. It is important to know why all these different deficits co-occur in the affected people. This paper aims to clarify whether these comorbid deficits result from the selective impairment of a computational primitive, namely, a context-sensitive computational ability according to Chomsky's Hierarchy (a well-established research tool in comparative neuroscience). ⋯ The observed deficits in our patients with Parkinson disease cannot be explained in terms of the selective impairment of one only unspecific, low-level computational process. At the same time, differences between patients and controls are expected to be greater if the former are not medicated. Moreover, we should pursue in the search of (this kind of) computational primitives than can be selectively impaired in people with Parkinson disease, because they may help to achieve an earlier diagnosis of this condition.
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Envenomation by black widow spiders manifests clinically with signs of neurotoxicity in paediatric patients. ⋯ The neurological signs and symptoms caused by black widow spider bite are predominantly autonomic, and identifying them permits early diagnosis and more effective treatment.