Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
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While auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are a common symptom of schizophrenia, the underlying mechanisms behind these perceptual anomalies and their effects on auditory processing are not fully understood. Patients suffering from schizophrenia have been shown to exhibit impaired sensory gating of acoustic stimuli, evidenced by a failure to inhibit the auditory P50 scalp recorded middle latency evoked potential response to the second of two paired auditory "clicks" (S1-S2). ⋯ Results suggest the relationship between auditory hallucinations and auditory processing dysfunction measured by P50 response is more trait than state dependent in schizophrenia.
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Paralytic poliomyelitis (pPM) is clinically suspected in individuals experiencing a non-progressive syndrome of flaccid paralysis and atrophy as a sequel of an acute infection. Despite normal sensory perception, patients with pPM complain of pain more than matched siblings. Here, we studied the characteristics of evoked pain in a cohort of pPM patients using contact heat evoked potentials and psychophysical tests. ⋯ This phenomenon should be taken into account in the routine clinical evaluation and management of pPM patients.
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In contrast to tactile inputs, the organization and processing of nociceptive inputs in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) remain largely unexplored. Few studies have examined the arrangement of nociceptive inputs in S1. The aim of this study was to investigate the representation of nociceptive inputs in the human cortex, including the somatosensory and posterior parietal cortices, from widely separated cutaneous sites. ⋯ This is the first MEG study to demonstrate the cortical representation of nociceptive inputs in the human S1. We showed that widely separated cutaneous sites clearly supported Penfield's homunculus.