ObjectiveThe present study sought to analyze the influence of Levetiracetam (LEV) in cognitive performance by identifying the changes produced by LEV in reaction time, in neuropsychological assessment of attention and memory and in absolute theta power in frontal activity.MethodsTwelve healthy subjects (5 men and 7 women; mean age, 30.08 years, standard deviation, 4.71) were recruited for this study. The neuropsychological tests: Trail Making Test (A and B), Digit Span (direct and indirect numerical orders/working memory); Stroop test (inhibitory control of attention); Tower of London (planning and decision-making) and a quantitative electroencephalography were applied in 2 different days after and before the participants ingested the capsule of placebo or 500 mg LEV.ResultsA two-way-ANOVA was implemented to observe the interaction between conditions (placebo or LEV 500 mg) and moments (pre- and post-ingestion of LEV or placebo). The data were analyzed by the SPSS statistical package (p<0.05). For the neuropsychological parameter, the Trail Making Test (A) was the only test that showed significant difference for condition in the task execution time (p=0.026). Regarding the reaction time in the behavioral parameter, an interaction between both factors (p=0.034) was identified through a two-way-ANOVA (condition versus moment). Electrophysiological measures showed a significant interaction for electrodes: F7, F3, and FZ.ConclusionThe findings showed that LEV promotes an important cognitive enhancement in the executive functions.

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The objective of this article is to place the study of urban protest and violence in the period from about 300 to about 600 CE in a broader perspective and to subject the investigation of plebeian activism to the basic precepts of analysis of collective action developed by social scientists and historians studying other periods. Its main argument is that, contrary to wide held assumptions in the historiography, what characterized Late Antiquity was not simply the exacerbation of violence or its tighter control, but the crisis of aristocratic hegemony and the expansion of opportunities for popular intervention in city life. What has been perceived as the product fanaticism, irrationality and deprivation of the masses, of the manipulation of bishops and aristocrats or of the failure of the mechanisms of coercion was actually the result of a dramatic social change that, on the one hand, involved a new dynamic of power and, on the other, a shift in the way the people understood their role and power in local communities.

A historiografia sobre a África do Norte antiga foi amplamente marcada pela experiência do moderno colonialismo e pelo processo de descolonização que se seguiu. Tudo isso resultou em uma visão polarizada da história do Magreb antigo e no uso constante de oposições binárias para compreender as realidades antigas. Este artigo estuda, em particular, a construção e a utilização da oposição entre “nômades” e “sedentários”, “pastores” e “agricultores” nas historiografias colonial e independantista e mostra como os trabalhos arqueológicos dos últimos anos, distanciando-se dessas antigas visões, têm suscitado novas perspectivas de investigação sobre o pastoralismo na Africa antiga.