Invent the Girl

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What should you do if you are showing symptoms of novel coronavirus (COVID-19)? Frank Myers, interim director of infection prevention and clinical epidemiology at UC San Diego Health, explains what our patients can do if they suspect their symptoms might mean they have COVID-19.

We know you may be concerned about the outbreak of novel coronavirus and its implications for the health of you and your loved ones. Your safety and well-being are our top priority. Here’s what you should know:

We have implemented new restrictions on visitors at our hospitals and clinics to reduce health risks for everyone. We are screening all visitors and patients for COVID-19-related respiratory symptoms – including fever, new cough, new shortness of breath, and/or a persistent scratchy throat – before they enter a facility.

We have set up a dedicated nurse line, 800-926-8273, for UC San Diego Health patients to discuss their symptoms before they arrive for appointments or schedule Urgent Care visits. Patients should not walk in or schedule an appointment online.

For more information, see our frequently asked questions health.ucsd.edu/patients/Pages/2019-coronavirus

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Electroencephalography (EEG) provides a continuous scalp recording of synchronously firing pyramidal cells within the neocortex. The method involves measuring the voltage difference between two points in space, allowing a differentiation of various brain waves based on electrode location. The procedure is often used clinically to distinguish epileptic seizures, which produce synchronous brain activity diffusely, from other neurological conditions. 

Patients with petit mal seizures (absence seizures) show a transient change to consciousness followed by return to normal activity without a post-ictal state, behavioral changes that are correlated with notable EEG changes as shown below. 

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A Trip down Memory Lane: The Case of H.M.

Henry Molaison, known famously as H.M., was only 27-years old when he underwent a partial (but nearly complete) bilateral medial temporal lobectomy to alleviate his progressively worsening intractable epilepsy. The procedure, performed in 1953, left Henry suffering from lifelong anterograde amnesia, unable to formulate new long-term memories.

Interestingly, Henry’s deficits appeared limited to the consolidation of explicit (declarative) long-term memories, but not implicit (non-declarative) long-term memories. Henry showed improved performance comparable to “healthy” individuals, in the star-drawing mirror task, priming stem completion, and reading of backward mirror texts despite not being able to recall ever performing the task before. Henry was also able to “add” new memories by modifying existing pre-1953 memories but showed some temporally graded retrograde amnesia as he aged. 

Henry’s condition, studied by Brenda Milner throughout his life, provided formidable insights into the compartmentalization of memory encoding and consolidation, and established the medial temporal lobe as the main route for explicit long-term memory consolidation.

Brenda Milner, Neuropsychologist. McGill University, 2010. 12:13 minutes.