Galliform birds (Galliformes) make up together with anseriform birds (Anseriformes) the clade Galloanserae, the sister group of Neoaves and the most basal clade of Neognathae. However, to date no quantitative data on cellular composition of their brains have been available. Here, I used the isotropic fractionator to determine numbers of neurons and non-neuronal cells in specific brain regions of 15 species of galliform birds. I find that cellular scaling rules for galliforms differ starkly from those for songbirds and parrots. When compared to these crown avian lineages, galliform birds feature lower degree of encephalization, a proportionally smaller telencephalon, small telencephalic and dominant cerebellar neuronal fractions, generally lower neuronal densities and larger glia/neuron ratios. Consequently, their brains and especially their forebrains harbor much smaller absolute numbers of neurons than those of equivalently sized songbird and parrots, the fact that undoubtedly constrains cognitive abilities of galliforms. However, this not to say that galliform birds are "bird brains" with low numbers of neurons and a limited ability to learn. Because they have high neuronal densities, their relatively small brains contain about equal numbers of neurons as brains of equivalently sized rodents and...

Abstract This diploma thesis aims to describe coordinated health rehabilitation of people after severe brain injury provided by multidisciplinary team within home environment. It comprises both theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part presents the history and development of coordinated rehabilitation services and the function of multidisciplinary team. Furthermore, it characterizes a brain injury in more details. The practical part was carried out by means of qualitative research strategy semi structured interview. The first part of the research was aimed at the interviews with clients after brain injury and cerebrovascular accident. The interviews started after three months from entering the project and were realized by social workers. Its main propose was to evaluate the care of multidisciplinary team. Clients were questioned about work, time, communication and co-operation of individual experts involved in the process of recovering. The second part of the research used a method called focus group, where 12 members of the team were involved. The goal of the research was to describe how the multidisciplinary team works from both the point of view of a patient after the brain injury and the members of the multidisciplinary team within the project GAJU. The GAJU project is entitled "Coordinated rehabilitation of patients with brain injury (reg. number GAJU 138/2016/S)". The selection of patients was based on the communicative skills criteria e.g. skills to participate in the directed conversation based on the FIM and WHODAS and the follow-up questions concerning social issues, physiotherapeutic and ergo therapeutic methods and techniques. To achieve the aim of the diploma thesis two research questions were defined: "How is the function of multidisciplinary team perceived by clients involved in GAJU project?" and "How is the function perceived by the members of multidisciplinary team involved in GAJU project who put the coordinated rehabilitation into practice?" It was found out that after the discharge from a hospital being with family members was the most important. Besides, multidisciplinary team who regularly commuted to clients helped them. The members of the team were physiotherapists, ergo therapists, social workers and doctors. In view of the fact that physiotherapist attended the client the most frequently, the function of this expert is perceived as crucial during recovery. No less important is ergo therapist who is useful concerning motor activity and presenting various tools and aids leading to improvement. Social worker is apprehended rather as a psychological or informative support. Positively valued is attending clients at home, interconnection of the team members and the progress of the client from all points of view. On the other hand the lack of working experience of some team members is pointed out. Additionally, some clients were not satisfied that the data were collected by means of questionnaires.

The social brain hypothesis (SBH) posits that complex social environments exert a major selection pressure driving the evolution of large brains and intelligence. The hypothesis was first proposed to explain the remarkable cognitive abilities of primates and has since been extended to other vertebrate groups and gained a substantial popularity. Nevertheless, the empirical support is equivocal in virtually every group where the hypothesis has been tested. In this thesis, the SBH is tested in the African mole-rats (Bathyergidae). Mole-rats share a subterranean mode of life and similar ecologies while covering the whole social spectrum, from solitary to "eusocial". The number of brain neurons is considered a better proxy for intelligence than relative or absolute brain size. Therefore, a novel approach, the isotropic fractionator, was used to estimate the total number of neurons and other cells in five brain parts (olfactory bulbs, cerebral cortex, cerebellum, diencephalon and basal ganglia, brain stem) of eleven bathyergid species. This simultaneously allows for examining if and how mole-rats differ from other rodents with respect to brain cellular scaling rules. We found that, contrary to expectations, mole-rats generally conform to these rules, with a few exceptions. They tend to have higher...

Aquired brain injury (ABI) of various etiology is one of the major causes of health impairment, disability and death in adult population. It has a wide scale of physical, psychological and social consequences impacting the lives of patients and their relatives. Neuropsychological rehabilitation (individual and group) has become an integrated part of the complex rehabilitation of ABI supported by evidence-based research and practice. Theory and research suggest new perspective on psychotherapy and its role in this process, though its use in the Czech republic may be limited. The goal of the theoretical part of this thesis was to explore the status of the knowledge and practice of neuropsychological rehabilitation of ABI with focus on group work and psychotherapy and their effectiveness. The empirical part aimed to analyze effectiveness of short-term group dynamic psychotherapy in sample of patients with ABI. The intervention was applied in a realistic setting of two selected rehabilitation centers. The patients completed European Brain Injury Questionnaire for Patients (EBIQ-P) and Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale pre-, after 6 weeks and post- intervention covering researched symptoms. The results suggest that there was a significant change in perception of various categories of problems...

Recent comparative studies have shown that bird brains, although small, have a high processing capacity. The brains of parrots and songbirds have higher neuronal densities than brains of mammals; especially large parrots and corvids compete with or even outnumber primates by the number of telencephalic neurons. However, the processing capacity of the avian brain appears to differ significantly between various phylogenetic lineages. Basal groups such as galliform birds have much lower absolute numbers of neurons and lower neuronal densities than songbirds and parrots. In this Master thesis, I used the isotropic fractionator to determine numbers of neurons and non-neural cells in specific brain regions in 19 species of hornbills (Bucerotiformes), woodpeckers (Piciformes) and coraciiform birds (Coraciiformes). The brains of hornbills and woodpeckers (but not coraciiform birds) have numbers of neurons comparable to that of songbirds and parrots and significantly more neurons than equivalently sized brains of pigeons (Columbiformes) and galliform birds (Galliformes). In the crown groups, we can observe similar trends such as a higher degree of encephalization, a proportionally larger telencephalon and increasing percentage of telencephalic neurons. On the contrary, in pigeons and galliform birds, we can...

Thesis named Calculation of advanced diffusion parameters in brain grey matter from DKI MRI images deals with processing of diffusion-weighted images from DKI. The thesis contains review of literature on principle of diffusion, influence of diffusion on MRI, calculation of DTI and DKI parameters and clinical application of diffusion-weighted maps with focus on grey matter. The thesis focuses on software tools for processing and pre-processing DTI and DKI. The practical part consisted of two sections. Two different softwares were used to calculate maps of diffusion parameters. Diffusion parameters from anatomical structure sunstantia nigra were compared between group of healthy controls and patients with Parkinson’s disease. This comparison did not show any statisticaly significant difference. In the second step, a script for creating diffusion maps in software Diffusinal Kurtosis Estimator was made.

This thesis is focused on quality of life theme, satisfaction with life topic and social self- efficacy subject, with emphasizing of the acquired brain injury context and specific and unique brain injury consequences. Thesis is based on theoretical fundament of all mentioned concepts, but mainly there are actual quantitative data and results of quality of life, satisfaction with life and social self-efficacy and other-efficacy in the framework of acquired brain injury research sample in Czech Republic. Not only description of quality of different life parts subjective perception, but also search of possible relationships strength between quality of life and social efficacy has been probed. All of these has been used in application of lots of standardized and also new questionnaire and methods. Keywords: acquired brain injury, quality of life, satisfaction with life, social self-efficacy, social other- efficacy

Deficient executive functioning influences significantly the ability to manage every day life requirements. Nowdays different structured programmes for EF rehabilitation are available for aquired brain damage patiens. Their efficiency had been confirmed by meta- analysis, yet cognitive-behavioural rehabilitation programmes in clinical praktice still lack some kind of systematic intervention particularly aimed at EF. The topic of the theoretical part is an introduction of selected theoretical models of EF and a summary of existing knowledge about EF rehabilitation. I have created a rehabilitation programme specificly focused on the ability of planning and organizing acitivities, which are complex abilities closely linked to the primary components of EF. This programme was created to help patiens with aquired brain damage to work on improvment of such abilities, whose disruption makes managing every day life requirements difficult. Along with that we tried to improve the quality of their lifes. This programme is also being introduced wihin the theoretical part of this work. Further the process of research is being analyzed. The rehabilitation programme was used with 9 aquired brain damage patiens and it's efficiency was measured. Reasons why I used small-n design are analyzed in detail as well as the...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the importance of brain MRI's findings, and modify the criteria for brain MR imaging in NF1 patients according to this data, to improve the quality of life with early detection of important NF1 complications. Description of the whole cohort, with emphasise to possible cause of high range of sporadic NF1 cases. Evaluation the possibility diagnosis or follow up of brain gliomas by plasmatic values of neuron specific enolase (NSE) and S100B protein. Subjects and methods: I analysed data from 285 NF1 children followed up on our department from 1990 to 2010 by the same examination battery. I evaluated the incidence of brain MRI findings, clinical development, age at gliomas manifestation and necessity of treatment. I also described the whole cohort and made statistic analysis of plasmatic values of NSE and S100B protein in NF1 patients, with and without brain gliomas. Results: OPGs were found in 77/285 (27 %) children and GOOPs in 29/285 (10.2 %) of NF1 children, of who 19 had OPG and GOOP together, so the total number of brain glioma was 87/285 (30.5 %). Totally, 43/87 (49.4 %), respectively 43/285 (15.1 %) children with brain glioma were treated, and 4/285 (1.4 %) of this children died. Obstructive hydrocephalus was found in 22/285 (7.7 %) patients and was caused...

Cognitive and psychosocial sequelae following hypoxic brain injury Abstract in English Hypoxic brain injury leads to neuronal necrosis and to other cerebral changes which may affect psychosocial functioning. Although the pathophysiology of cerebral hypoxia is multifactorial, and it is not possible to reliably describe the unified clinical picture of hypoxia patients, the most commonly described psychosocial consequences of cerebral hypoxia are cognitive impairment, increased anxiety and depressive symptoms. The aim of the present study is to characterize cognitive functioning and psychosocial changes of the patients exposing mild intermittent cerebral hypoxia (=chronic form of hypoxia, model of obstructive sleep apnea diagnosed by neurologist) and patients after severe one-time cerebral hypoxia (=acute form of hypoxia, model of cardiac arrest diagnosed by cardiologist). Regardless of the different etiology of particular hypoxia forms described in the theoretical part of the thesis, both forms may lead to neuronal death. In the experimental part we test a hypothesis comparing healthy individuals to patients with acute or chronic form of hypoxia in cognitive performance or anxiety and depressive symptoms. We document a decreased cognitive performance and higher level of state anxiety in a group of patients...