[A Case of Bacterial Meningitis in Which Occurrence of Ataxie Optique Led to Detection of a Small Subdural Abscess and Pialitis]

We report the case of a 69-year-old man with bacterial meningitis who presented with ataxie optique in the peripheral part of the left visual field in both hands. A detailed neurological examination with contrast-enhanced brain MRI in the early stage of the clinical course identified a small subdural abscess and pialitis in the right parietal area. A favorable outcome was obtained with antibiotic therapy alone. In a case with higher brain dysfunction of unknown cause in the clinical course of bacterial meningitis, a detailed neurological examination may be helpful to identify the causative site. (Received September 25, 2023; Accepted October 31, 2023; Published March 1, 2024).

Volume of the right supramarginal gyrus is associated with a maintenance of emotion recognition ability

Emotion recognition is known to change with age, but associations between the change and brain atrophy are not well understood. In the current study atrophied brain regions associated with emotion recognition were investigated in elderly and younger participants. Group comparison showed no difference in emotion recognition score, while the score was associated with years of education, not age. We measured the gray matter volume of 18 regions of interest including the bilateral precuneus, supramarginal gyrus, orbital gyrus, straight gyrus, superior temporal sulcus, inferior frontal gyrus, insular cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus, which have been associated with social function and emotion recognition. Brain reductions were observed in elderly group except left inferior frontal gyrus, left straight gyrus, right orbital gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, and right supramarginal gyrus. Path analysis was performed using the following variables: age, years of education, emotion recognition score, and the 5 regions that were not different between the groups. The analysis revealed that years of education were associated with volumes of the right orbital gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, and right supramarginal gyrus. Furthermore, the right supramarginal gyrus volume was associated with the emotion recognition score. These results suggest that the amount of education received contributes to maintain the right supramarginal gyrus volume, and indirectly affects emotion recognition ability.