Weak central coherence in patients with Alzheimer’s disease

Central coherence refers to the ability to interpret details of information into a whole. To date, the concept of central coherence is mainly used in research of autism, Asperger＇s syndrome and recently in the research on eating disorders. The main purpose of the present study was to examine central coherence in patients with Alzheimer＇s disease. Nine Alzheimer＇s disease patients and ten age- and gender-matched control subjects, who differed significantly in neurological assessment, were shown a picture of a fire. Compared to control subjects, the Alzheimer＇s disease patients described the picture in a fragmented way by mentioning details and separate objects without perceiving the context of the fire. In conclusion, patients with Alzheimer＇s disease are at the weak end of central coherence, and hence suffer from a fragmented view of their surroundings. The findings have important clinical implications for the understanding of patients with Alzheimer＇s diseaseand also for the possibility of caregivers to meet the Alzheimer＇s disease individual in an appropriate way in the everyday care.

Frozen Quantum Coherence for a Central Two-Qubit System in a Spin-Chain Environment

We investigate the dynamics of coherence for a central two-qubit system coupled to an XY spin chain with the Dzyaloshinsky–Moriya interaction. It is found that a sudden transition of coherence exists near the critical point in the weak-coupling case, and an oscillatory envelope appears in the strong-coupling case. In both cases the freezing phenomenon of coherence can be found.

Correlation between macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness and visual acuity after resolution of the macular edema secondary to central retinal vein occlusion

AIM： To examine the thickness of the ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer（GCIPL） in eyes with resolved macular edema（ME） in non-ischemic central retinal vein occlusion（CRVO）, applying spectral-domain optical coherence tomography（SD-OCT）, and its relationship with visual acuity.METHODS： The retrospective observational case-control study included 30 eyes of non-ischemic CRVO patients with resolved ME（ME eyes） after treatment, and 30 eyes of non-ischemic CRVO patients without ME（non-ME eyes）. The macular GCIPL thickness, peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer（p RNFL） thickness and central macular thickness（CMT） were measured on a SD-OCT scan. Linear regression analyses were performed to determine the correlation between the thickness of each and the visual acuity（VA）.RESULTS： No significant difference in average GCIPL thickness, mean pR NFL thickness and CMT were observed between ME group and non-ME group（P=0.296, 0.183, 0.846）. But, minimum GCIPL thickness was reduced in ME eyes compared with non-ME eyes（P=0.022）. Final VA significantly correlated with the minimum GCIPL thickness in ME eyes（r=-0.482, P=0.007）, whereas no correlation was found with average GCIPL thickness, average pR NFL thickness and mean CMT.CONCLUSION： Minimum GCIPL thickness is reduced in ME eyes compared with non-ME eyes, and correlated with the VA in non-ischemic CRVO. These results propose that inner retinal damage occurring in patients with ME secondary to non-ischemic CRVO may lead to permanent visual defect after treatment.