Corpus callosum functioning in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus before and after surgery.
OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to evaluate corpus callosum functioning in a group of patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) before and after shunting.


METHODS
Left ear-extinction under a dichotic listening task was evaluated in twenty-three patients with NPH, 30 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 30 aged controls.


RESULTS
Patients with NPH had higher levels of left ear extinction than the control and Alzheimer's groups. Sixty-one percent of NPH patients exhibited left ear suppression, compared with 13% of Alzheimer's patients and 17% of controls. Following surgery, NPH patients showed a significant change in the degree of asymmetry in the dichotic listening task.


CONCLUSIONS
Hydrocephalus was associated with left-ear extinction,which diminished after surgery. Our results may indicate reversible functional damage in the corpus callosum.
Mataró
Maria
M
Departament de Psiquiatria i Psicobiologia, Universitat de Barcelona, IDIBAPS, Casanova 143, 08036, Barcelona, Spain. cjunque@ub.edu
Poca
Maria Antonia
MA
Matarín
Mar
M
Sahuquillo
Juan
J
Sebastián
Nuria
N
Junqué
Carme
C
D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D002557:Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunts / Q000379:methods*; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D006850:Hydrocephalus, Normal Pressure / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies