The present thesis investigates the effects of lesions to several hypothesized learning and memory systems on the morphine conditioned cue preference on the radial maze. Lesions of the structures thought to be centered to learning systems: the lateral nucleus of amygdala, fornix/fimbria, anterior dorsal striatum and posterior dorsal striatum, were made, In Experiment One, each structure was lesioned separately. Only lesions of the lateral nucleus of amygdala blocked morphine CCP learning. In Experiment Two, rats with combined lesions of fornix/fimbria and dorsal striatum, the lateral nucleus of amygdala and fornix/fimbria, as well as the lateral nucleus of amygdala and dorsal striatum were all impaired on morphine CCP. All of the rats with combined lesions were impaired in this CCP learning. These findings suggest that the lateral nucleus of amygdala is necessary for the morphine CCP. Participation of dorsal striatum or fornix/fimbria is also required. Some hypotheses about the interactions among the structures are discussed.

The general purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between neuropsychological tests scores and perfusion deficits, based upon measures of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) taken from the single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans of patients suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). The study was designed to determine if DAT patients categorized as having left hemisphere, right hemisphere, diffuse, or an absence of perfusion deficits, as measured by SPECT, would be accurately grouped into their respective categories, and if they would exhibit the corresponding neuropsychological deficiencies usually associated with lateral hemispheric asymmetries.Selected subjects were 80 right handed, DAT patients from the North Broward Medical Center - Memory Disorder Center, in Pompono Beach, Florida, who had been administered a neuropsychological test battery, and a SPECT scan.Through several ANOVA's that were calculated for each of the neuropsychological variables, it was concluded that DAT patients who suffered from perfusion deficits exhibited significantly lower levels of neuropsychological functioning than DAT patients without perfusion deficits.These analyses revealed significantly lower levels of neuropsychological performance in the perfusion deficit group on the combination of left hemisphere WAIS-R subtests (Information, Similarities & Vocabulary), WMS - Logical Story (p < .01), WRAT-R Reading, WRAT-R Mathematics, WMS Paired Associates, and the Rey Complex Figure (p < .05).A separate step-wise discriminant function analysis indicated that a combination of the neuropsychological variables could not accurately classify the DAT patients into their respective right hemisphere, left hemisphere, diffuse, or absence of perfusion deficit groups. The discriminant function classified only 32.5% of the grouped cases accurately. Of the original thirteen neuropsychological variables, only Paired Associates immediate recall of the WMS entered the discriminant analysis equation. This accounted for only 23% of the total variability that could be explained by differences between the perfusion deficit groups. In several post hoc ANOVA's using the Bonferroni method of multiple comparisons, it was revealed that the absence of perfusion deficit group scored significantly higher than the other groups on the majority of the left hemisphere neuropsychological measures. However, none of the right hemisphere neuropsychological measures attained significance. / Department of Educational Psychology

This research focused on the development of a methodology for analyzing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected from patients with epilepsy in order to map epileptic networks. Epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures, affects up to 1% of the world's population. Antiepileptic drug therapies either do not successfully control seizures or have unacceptable side effects in over 30% of patients. Approximately one-third of patients whose seizures cannot be controlled by medication are candidates for surgical removal of the affected area of the brain, potentially rendering them seizure free. Accurate localization of the epileptogenic focus, i.e., the area of seizure onset, is critical for the best surgical outcome. The main objective of the research was to develop a set of fMRI data features that could be used to distinguish between normal brain tissue and the epileptic focus. To determine the best combination of features from various domains for mapping the focus, genetic programming and several feature selection methods were employed. These composite features and feature sets were subsequently used to train a classifier capable of discriminating between the two classes of voxels. The classifier was then applied to a separate testing set in order to generate maps showing brain voxels labeled as either normal or epileptogenic based on the best feature or set of features. It should be noted that although this work focuses on the application of fMRI analysis to epilepsy data, similar techniques could be used when studying brain activations due to other sources. In addition to investigating in vivo data collected from temporal lobe epilepsy patients with uncertain epileptic foci, phantom (simulated) data were created and processed to provide quantitative measures of the efficacy of the techniques.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-196). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-94). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Norman Geschwind, Albert M. Galaburda. / "A Bradford book." "Much of this book appeared as a three-part article in the 'Archives of neurology' volume 42, May, June, and July, 1985"--T.p. verso. Includes index. / Bibliography: p. [241]-273.

Please read the abstract in the 00front part of this document. / Dissertation (MA (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

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