title: Corpus callosum functioning in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus before and after surgery.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Psiquiatria i Psicobiologia, Universitat de Barcelona, IDIBAPS, Casanova 143, 08036, Barcelona, Spain. cjunque@ub.edu
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mataró
authors.forename: Maria Antonia
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Poca
authors.forename: Mar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matarín
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sahuquillo
authors.forename: Nuria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sebastián
authors.forename: Carme
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Junqué
mesh_terms: 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