Classical AD Research Articles

De Illustraties in Doen Pieterszoons Uitgave Van Het Evangelie Naar Mattheus (Amsterdam 1522)

AbstractIn 1522 the Amsterdam printer Doen Pieterszoon published the first edition of the gospel according to St. Matthew in the vernacular. The text by Johan Pelt was a translation of Erasmus's Novum testamentum of 1516. The titlepage shows a woodcut of the evangelist of a type recurrent in several dutch bibles. Furthermore, the gospel contains six woodcuts of a rather emblematical character. Five of these depict an angel (the symbol for Matthew) holding in his hands, and surrounded by it, several objects, figures, and little scenes. Each of these are accompanied by a number, and are thus related to a corresponding chapter of the gospel. For example, a gnome-like devil carrying boulders at the angel's feet, refers to the temptation of Christ in the desert (Mt. 4:3). Pieterszoon's illustrations were copied after Petrus von Rosenheim's Rationarium evangelistarum, or Ars memorandi (editio princeps Pforzheim 1502), in which all the gospels were covered, and the symbols of the other evangelists (lion, ox and eagle) also featured as presenters. In their turn these cuts were copied after the Ars memorandi quator evangelia, a blockbook printed in Germany ca. 1470. As their titles suggest, these were works of a mnemotechnical nature, and the woodcuts served as images to aid the memory. However, the Ars memorandi does not belong to the tradition of the artificial memory as described by Frances Yates. Yet, the elements of the classical mnemotechnical Ad Flerennium tractate, loci and images, are present in the illustrations. Thus the Ars memorandi woodcuts are memory images, through which the contents of the gospels can be more easily memorised. They did not, however, prove succesful as biblical illustrations. Pieterszoon did not use them again in any of his later bible editions, and in fact no other printer did. Biblical illustrations were intended to depict biblical stories and to eludicate the text, and as such the Ars memorandi images obviously did not work.

Presence of parieto‐temporal symptomatology distinguishes early and late onset Alzheimer's disease

AbstractThirty‐one patients with early onset Alzheimer's disease (EAD) and 44 with late onset Alzheimer's disease (LAD) were examined with regard to symptoms reflecting disturbances in various brain regions, ie frontal, parietal and subcortical symptoms. Clinical vascular factors were recorded. The albumin ratio (CSF albumin/serum albumin) was used as a measure of the blood‐brain barrier (BBB) function. Parietal symptoms were more common in EAD than in LAD, both among mildly demented patients (60% in EAD, 10% in LAD; p<0.01) and among moderately demented patients (93% in EAD, 58% in LAD; p<0.01). Among moderately and severely demented patients, predominance parietal symptoms was more common in EAD (93%) than in LAD (26%) (p<0.01). Patients with predominant parietal symptoms had significantly lower age at onset, absence of concomitant diseases, and normal BBB function, and we suggest that they constitute the classical AD group. A symptom profile without parietal predominance was found to be associated with higher age at onset, presence of clinical vascular factors and impaired BBB function, suggesting that age‐related and/or vascular factors may influence the symptomatology in this group.

Attenuation of the inhibitory effect of binedaline and desipramine on the firing rate of locus coeruleus neurons after chronic administration: time-course study

Binedaline is a new AD acting selectively or noradrenergic systems.Clinically it is reported to differ from classical AD by its rapidity of action. In order to give experimental support to this observation chronic electrophysiological studies were initiated. The chronic administration of various AD results in an attenuation of their inhibitory effect on the firing rate of LC neurons. This attenuation probably reflects modifications in the sensitivity of some adrenoceptors. As it is usually assumed that the delayed onset of the therapeutic effectiveness of AD is related to the development of these adaptive processes, the time-course evolution of the attenuation of the inhibitory effect of binedaline and desipramine on the firing rate of LC neurons was studied. The attenuation was apparent after 9 days of treatment with binedaline and after 14 days of treatment with desipramine. These data indicate that adaptive processes develop more rapidly with binedaline and give experimental support to clinical data.