Clinical features of brain activation deficit in children

• Published in: Revista de la Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Vol. 65; no. 3; pp. 417 - 423
• Main Authors: Luna-Villanueva, Berenice, Solovieva, Yulia, Lázaro-García, Emelia, Quintanar, Luis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bogota Universidad Nacional de Colombia 01-07-2017
• Subjects: Diagnosis; Evaluation; MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL; Neuropsychology; Evaluation; Diagnosis (MeSH); Neuropsychology; Neuropsicología; Diagnóstico (DeCS); Evaluación
• ISSN: 0120-0011; 2357-3848
• DOI: 10.15446/revfacmed.v65n3.57057

Introduction: Brain activation is considered as one of the mechanisms of the brain related to the functional state of deep subcortical structures. A deficit in this mechanism may be involved in behavioral disorders during development and school learning. Objective: To identify the clinical features of Mexican schoolchildren with general brain activation deficit, and to determine the neuropsychological tasks that help to detect this syndrome. Materials and methods: The sample included 20 Mexican schoolchildren attending regular schools and diagnosed with behavioral and/or learning disorders. The types of errors and performance in neuropsychological tasks were analyzed by categories. Results: The results showed that there are common clinical features in schoolchildren, particularly, executive instability, fatigue and/or slow execution, and instability in memory and perceptive graphic tasks. These features can be demonstrated through the qualitative syndromic analysis of perceptive graphic tasks, retention tasks and manual praxis. Conclusions: Qualitative assessment is effective to differentiate this type of cases from other possible neuropsychological conditions.