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31 Jan 1997 Ida and others: For two very interesting articles about the recently discovered dual nature of learning and memory, and the effects of PD, see Science, 6 Sep 1996, pp 1263-1264 and 1399-1402. (or the reviews in Current Science Reviews for October 1996). Cheers, Joe J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694 3527 Cody Road Sherman Oaks CA 91403 On Fri, 31 Jan 1997, elizabeth leslie wrote: > Ida, Thank you. What you say about learning new things is true I'm > sure. I have just recently realised that the amount of learning that has > taken place in my ailing brain this last 5 months is pretty phenomenael, > given I had almost 0 (conscious!) exposure to PD till then. Also I think > the temptation to dwell on what is lost overrides the recognition of what may > have been gained. > > I must admit I have ben worrying quite a bit about whether I'll have the > necesssary competence to adjust meds when necessary, and to take > advantage of things like Brian's charts which are in the 'too hard' > basket right now. I do think more and more 'just one step at a time' - > that's Parkie-think, for sure. > > Beth > > On Thu, 30 Jan 1997, Ida Kamphuis wrote: > > > > It realy is a very threatening subject you ask about. During my first time as a > > PWP I read about dementia as just an inevitable symptom of PD in several books. > > Going to meetings of the Dutch organisation of PWP's, I could see with my own > > eyes it was not that simple. I met a lot of people who where parkies for a long > > time but where evidently not demented. > > For myself I was not so sure, my life was turned upside down. It lasted a long > > time before I knew the right dosis of med's. I suffered from disturbed > > concentration. I could not read a book in another language than Dutch. > > With the passing of time however all turned more or less back to normal. I know > > my memory is not what it used to be. However, all people growing older feel the > > same. > > One diagnostic sign of dementia is the impossibility to learn something new. > > Just three years ago we planned a holiday in Turkey. I have always tried to > > learn a few hundreds words of the language of the countries we visited. In this > > case it was a double challenge because Turkish not a language of the > > Indo-European language-family. But I could do it. It did cost more repetition > > than I would have needed before. But having done so the words remained in my > > brain. > > > > I have looked for literature about this topic. I found just one thing. It > > consists of preliminary unpublished results of a study of the departement of > > neuropsychology of the University of Amsterdam. They found the following > > disturbances in PWP's: > > - disturbances in spatial orientation. > > - disturbances in rote-learning. This became more difficult, more > > time-consuming, but results were of the same quality and perseverance as in > > normals. > > So it may be true that Alzheimer dementia has a higher frequency in PWP's than > > in normals, but it seems that the "dementia" that is usually seen in Parkinson > > is from a different and less threatening type. > > > > Regards, Ida Kamphuis, 52/12 > > >