Recent studies suggest that white matter abnormalities contribute to both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The present study was designed to investigate the degree to which diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) indices are related to executive function in Parkinson's patients. We used tract-based spatial statistics to compare DTI data from 15 patients to 15 healthy, age- and education-matched controls. We then extracted mean values of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) within an a priori frontal mask. Executive function composite Z scores were regressed against these DTI indices, age, and total intracranial volume. In Parkinson's patients, FA was related to executive composite scores, and both indices were related to Stroop interference scores. We conclude that white matter microstructural abnormalities contribute to cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease. Further work is needed to determine whether these white matter changes reflect the pathological process or a clinically important comorbidity. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–6)

In recent decades historians specializing in the Middle East and North Africa have studied endemic and epidemic diseases as well as evolving medical and public health knowledge and policy to better understand major historical transformations. The study of gender and empire, class and ethnicity, and civil society and government in the determination of medical and public health policy has yielded new insights into questions of state power, colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, modernity, and globalization. Historians have asked why, when, and how Western medicine took root in Muslim societies, which had their own complex and longstanding medical traditions.

In this important book, Laurie Brand asks whether the all-too-brief political openings in the Middle East and North Africa had a positive or a negative impact on women's rights and whether the many Islamist and women's rights groups influenced that impact. She begins with a thoughtful statement describing her background and philosophical orientation vis-à-vis her study (pp. xv–xvi). Many authors of scholarly books find this very difficult to do, but it is helpful for serious readers and should be an expected practice. She also takes care to define her terms. “Women's status” here means women's legal status and women's rights to organize. She prefers to use “conservative forces” for “Islamism” or “Islamic fundamentalism,” though this varies in the text, and “conservative” for “traditional.” “Progress for women” means reproductive rights and access to divorce, though, as she notes, many women would ask for clean running water, good educational facilities, decent working conditions, and increased wages before reproductive rights and access to divorce. It is of course difficult to separate civil and political rights from social and economic rights; which comes first is like the chicken and the egg conundrum.

Human Rights activists and scholars are finding information technology advantageous in their work. Through electronic communication activists can disseminate information widely, rapidly and inexpensively with far less labor than before. Censorship can often be circumvented. Information can be easily compiled, analyzed and managed. Action alerts can be disseminated almost instantaneously. Distances are reduced to nearly nothing. Not surprisingly, human rights resources on the Internet are increasing by leaps and bounds. There are, however, limitations for the human rights community.

Whether multiple conscious efforts at word search bring a subject closer to an elusive word and to eventual successful retrieval remains a subject of debate. Previous work with normal participants has shown that multiple attempts eventuating in correct retrieval are not usually associated with a systematic progression toward target word phonology in the intervening attempts. In this study we analyzed the naming errors produced by 30 aphasic patients who had received the Boston Naming Test. The analyses were designed to elucidate the characteristics of responses that led to eventual success. Our data showed that among aphasics, as with normal subjects, the presence of target-initial phonology in the subject's first response was the most important predictor of correct retrieval. Moreover, progression towards target phonology in the course of multiple attempts was unrelated to eventual correct retrieval. (JINS, 1997, 3, 128–138.)