BrainBlog

Wherein the author finds that the fish gets it right and is pleased with the homage to Patient H.M.: Sallie Baxendale. Memories aren't made of this: Amnesia at the movies . British Medical Journal  2004; 329: 1480-1483 (18 December). [doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1480] Full text: Article [HTML] Article [.pdf] Now, where is that ad for the Lacuna Clinic? (grin) After all, Eternal Sunshine is BrainBlog's movie of the year!

With New Sleeping Pill, New Acceptability? By ANDREW POLLACK The New York Times 17 December 2004 Is it a wake-up call for the sleeping pill market? With Wednesday's approval of Sepracor's new drug, Lunesta, a taboo in the use of sleeping pills has been broken. Lunesta is the first sleeping pill whose label will not recommend it be taken for only 7 to 10 days. [ ... Read the full article ... ] (free registration required)

This week's Journal of the American Medical Association includes a clinical review about current knowledge of dementia in the presence of both probable Alzheimer disease and cerebrovascular disease, including neuropsychological and behavioral information, as well as a discussion of potential medications. Mixed Dementia: Emerging Concepts and Therapeutic Implications Kenneth M. Langa, MD, PhD; Norman L. Foster, MD; Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH JAMA.  2004; 292: 2901-2908. Context  The prevalence of mixed dementia, defined as the coexistence of Alzheimer disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD), is likely to increase as the population ages. Objectives  To provide an overview of the diagnosis, pathophysiology, and interaction of AD and VaD in mixed dementia, and to provide a systematic literature review of the current evidence for the pharmacologic therapy of mixed dementia. Data Sources, Study Selection, and Data Extraction  The Cochrane Database of Systematic Review...

From a University of Iowa press release : Brain Region Identified That Controls Collecting Behavior [snip] By studying patients who developed abnormal hoarding behavior following brain injury, neurology researchers in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A Carver College of Medicine have identified an area in the prefrontal cortex that appears to control collecting behavior. The findings suggest that damage to the right mesial prefrontal cortex causes abnormal hoarding behavior by releasing the primitive hoarding urge from its normal restraints. The study was published online in the Nov. 17 Advance Access issue of the journal Brain. [snip] The UI team studied 86 people with focal brain lesions - very specific areas of brain damage – to see if damage to particular brain regions could account for abnormal collecting behavior. Other than the lesions, the patients' brains functioned normally and these patients performed normally on tests of intelligence, reasoning an...

This week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (09 December 2004) includes two research papers and one editorial comment on topics concerning Parkinson disease: Levodopa and the Progression of Parkinson's Disease by The Parkinson Study Group. Abstract Rivastigmine for Dementia Associated with Parkinson's Disease by M. Emre and colleagues. Abstract Parkinson's Disease Dementia — A First Step? , an editorial comment by D. Z. Press. Extract

Mulhern RK, Khan RB, Kaplan S, Helton S, Christensen R, Bonner M, Brown R, Xiong X, Wu S, Gururangan S, Reddick WE. Short-term efficacy of methylphenidate: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial among survivors of childhood cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2004 Dec 1; 22(23): 4743-51. Division of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Hematology/Oncology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105-2794, USA. PURPOSE: Children surviving acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and malignant brain tumors (BTs) have a higher incidence of attention and learning problems in school than do their healthy peers. The present study tests the hypothesis that the psychostimulant methylphenidate (MPH) improves cognitive and social functioning among these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We report on 83 long-term survivors of ALL and BT identified as having attentional deficits on behavioral testing and parent or teacher report, and problems with academic achievemen...

This evening, the NBC Nightly News ran a feature report entitled "Mind Over Matter," concerning self-control over EEG components to "move" a computer cursor. The research program is the Wadsworth Center Brain-Computer Interface Project in Albany, New York. The report included an interview with the Project's Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw. Information about Dr Wolpaw and the project can be found on this webpage.

Yesterday's Sunday magazine in the Boston Globe included a decent feature article about advances in the neurosciences: Brain Power By Pamela Ferdinand The Boston Globe 05 December 2004 [ ... Read the article ... ]

Risk of Strokes Halts Sickle Cell Study By Daniel Yee Associated Press The Washington Post Monday, December 6, 2004; Page A02 ATLANTA, Dec. 5 -- A study aimed at determining whether some children with sickle cell anemia could be weaned off blood transfusion therapy has been halted because two young patients who stopped getting the procedure suffered strokes and others developed a high chance of strokes. The National Institutes of Health decided to issue a clinical alert recommending that doctors continue with blood transfusions to reduce the risk of stroke among young sickle cell patients, even though the treatment has its own risk. The study, called Stop II, was funded by the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and involved 23 U.S. medical centers and two in Canada. [ ... Read the full article ... ] (free registration required.)

There has been a lot of web searching for information about Tysabri (natalizumab) [formerly Antegren] in the wake of the FDA approval last month for use in multiple sclerosis. A lot of searching has been by patients and concerned family members, clinicians and students, and those interested in the business applications. I posted a couple of entries about the drug approval that are found in the November archives. I've been looking for a business commentary to note and found one earlier today: In the business-world end of this, here is an interesting commentary from the 24th of November by a writer for TheStreet.com : What Price Tysabri? By Adam Feuerstein Senior Writer, TheStreet.com 11/24/2004 8:00 AM EST Read the opinion article

From tomorrow's New York Times Sunday Magazine: In Search of Lost Time By CATHRYN JAKOBSON RAMIN The New York Times Published: December 5, 2004 A few months ago, as I trudged down the stairs of my office building, deep in my thoughts, I noticed a dark-haired woman waving to me from the window of her car. She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place her. Like quite a few others, she had slipped out of my mental Rolodex. In my brain, the synaptic traces that connected us had frayed. Yet again, I had misplaced an entire human being. [ ... Read the full article ... ]

jill/txt describes her experience visiting this art display about a woman with Alzheimer disease. Read her blog entry here. The Julia 1926 website can be found here.

Sarno MT, Postman WA, Cho YS, Norman RG. Evolution of phonemic word fluency performance in post-stroke aphasia. Journal of Communication Disorders. 2005 Mar-Apr; 38(2): 83-107. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, New York University, 400 East 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA. In this longitudinal study, quantitative and qualitative changes in responses of people with aphasia were examined on a phonemic fluency task. Eighteen patients were tested at 3-month intervals on the letters F-A-S while they received comprehensive, intensive treatment from 3 to 12 months post-stroke. They returned for a follow-up evaluation at an average of 10 months post-intervention. Mean group scores improved significantly from beginning to end of treatment, but declined post-intervention. Patients produced a significantly greater number and proportion of modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) between the beginning and end of treatment, with no decline afterwards, implying that t...

A Brown University press release describes a study published in this week's issue of Science: Antipsychotic Drugs Stop Fatal Viral Infection In Brain Cells PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Generic antipsychotic drugs can protect brain cells from a virus that causes a fatal nervous system disorder, according to research conducted at Brown University and Case Western Reserve University. The disorder, called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy or PML, affects hundreds of Americans with suppressed immune systems, including kidney transplant recipients, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and an estimated 4 percent of people with AIDS. PML is caused by the JC virus, which destroys the cells that produce the fatty sheath that covers nerve cells. This causes dementia, vision loss, movement and speech impairment, paralysis and coma. The disorder is fast moving and fatal; Many patients die within four months after onset. PML is also on the rise. Due to the AIDS pandemic, inciden...

As reported in the Boston Globe : Skull fragment shows 400-year-old surgery in Va., researchers say The Boston Globe By Sonja Barisic, Associated Press December 2, 2004 NORFOLK, Va. -- A skull fragment found in a nearly 400-year-old trash pit at Jamestown contains evidence of the earliest known surgery and possible autopsy in the English Colonies in America, researchers say. Circular cut marks indicate someone attempted to drill two holes in the skull to relieve pressure on the brain, the researchers said. The patient, a European man, died and apparently underwent an autopsy. Archeologists found the 4-inch-by-4-inch fragment this summer while digging in a bulwark trench on the site of James Fort. Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, was founded in 1607 as a business venture. The skull piece was discarded with trash, such as pottery shards, from no later than about 1610, said Bly Straube, senior curator of the Association for the Pres...

One of neuropsychology's and behavioral neuroscience's favorite historical case studies, Phineas Gage, is featured in this week's (02 December 2004) New England Journal of Medicine's "Images in Clinical Medicine" section, with two free-access .mpg videos by Peter Ratiu, M.D. and Ion-Florin Talos, M.D in their report, The Tale of Phineas Gage, Digitally Remastered .

The cover story for the 06 December 2004 issue of Newsweek deals with developments in cognitive neuroscience and with drugs that may improve or enhance memory functioning: The Quest for Memory Drugs By Mary Carmichael Newsweek Dec. 6 issue - To say that Aplysia Californicus is one of nature's least glamorous beasts would be too kind. A hermaphroditic marine snail with mottled purple skin, it keeps to itself, responding to disturbances by emitting a murky fluid that stains the water around it. Its "brain," if you can call it that, is stunningly simple, with only a few thousand oversize neurons. It is not, in short, a likely candidate for glory in the animal kingdom. But a few years from now, much of the baby-boom generation may be greatly indebted to this unprepossessing little creature. Aplysia may look homely, but to scientists hoping to develop memory-enhancing medicine, it is a thing of beauty. [ ... Read the full article ... ]

The 90th scientific conference of the Radiological Society of North America is meeting at this time, through the 3rd of December, in Chicago. Details of the meeting can be found on the Society's webpage for the conference.

Can brain-imaging technologies show whether we are being truthful or not? A current study, reported by Reuters (as found on the Houston Chronicle website), takes a look: Brain scans can tell who's lying, who's not Reuters News Service Nov. 29, 2004, 1:50PM [snip] "There may be unique areas in the brain involved in deception that can be measured with fMRI," said Dr. Scott Faro, director of the Functional Brain Imaging Center at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. "There may be unique areas in the brain involved in truth-telling," Faro added at a news conference. Faro and colleagues tested 10 volunteers. Six of them were asked to shoot a toy gun and then lie and say they didn't do it. Three others who watched told the truth about what happened. One volunteer dropped out of the study. [snip] There were clear differences between the liars and the truth-tellers, Faro's team told a meeting in Chicago of th...

The Massachusetts Neuropsychological Society is presenting a talk by Robert Stickgold, M.D. entitled "Sleep, Memory, and Dreams: A Neurocognitive Approach" on the 7th of December 2004 at 7:30 p.m. in the 8th Floor Conference Room of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Information about registration and fees can be found on the Society's website .

On the topic of sports-related concussion, an article in today's New York Times on soccer headgear: Soccer Headgear: Does It Do Any Good? By JERE LONGMAN The New York Times 27 November 2004 Read the article . (free registration required)

Today's New York Times includes a front-page article about the culture of clinical-trials research: what happens to participant subjects when an experimental drug is pulled from testing and, among other issues, how teasing apart placebo-based from drug-based improvements when a drug is pulled from study is impacted when participants swear by its effectiveness in their own experience? Many See Hope in Parkinson's Drug Pulled From Testing By ANDREW POLLACK The New York Times 26 November 2004 With his condition deteriorating from Parkinson's disease last year, Steve Kaufman gave up making improvements to his home in Algonquin, Ill. "I couldn't even hold a nail stable," he recalled. Earlier this year, after taking an experimental drug in a clinical trial, Mr. Kaufman built new kitchen cabinets and an outdoor deck. He was so steady he could walk across a narrow piece of lumber like an Olympic gymnast on the balance beam. The drug, however, is n...

Alves G, Wentzel-Larsen T, Larsen JP. Is fatigue an independent and persistent symptom in patients with Parkinson disease? Neurology. 2004 Nov 23; 63(10): 1908-11. Department of Neurology, Rogaland Central Hospital, Postboks 8100, N-4068 Stavanger, Norway. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if mental fatigue is a symptom that appears independently from other clinical features in patients with Parkinson disease (PD), and to study if fatigue is persistent over time in these patients. METHODS: In 1993, 233 patients with PD were included in a community-based study of fatigue and followed prospectively over 8 years. Fatigue was measured by a combination of a seven-point scale and parts of the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) at baseline and after 4 and 8 years. In addition, the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) was used to evaluate fatigue in 2001. Population-averaged logistic regression models for correlated data were performed to study the relationship between fatigue and various demographic and c...

From the FDA: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE P04-107 November 23, 2004 Full press release Media Inquiries: 301-827-6242 Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA First Monoclonal Antibody Treatment For Multiple Sclerosis Approved FDA today licensed a new biologic approach to treat patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) to reduce the frequency of symptom flare-ups or exacerbations of the disease. MS is a chronic, often disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord. Natalizumab, the new product, is a monoclonal antibody bioengineered from part of a mouse antibody to closely resemble a human antibody. It is being marketed under the tradename Tysabri. The product is given intravenously once a month in a physician's office. [ ... continues ... ]

From today's New York Times : New Tools to Help Patients Reclaim Damaged Senses By SANDRA BLAKESLEE The New York Times 23 November 2004 Full article (free registration required) [snippet] But the technology for swapping sensory information is largely the effort of Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, a neuroscientist in the University of Wisconsin Medical School's orthopedics and rehabilitation department. More than 30 years ago, Dr. Bach-y-Rita developed the first sensory substitution device, routing visual images, via a head-mounted camera, to electrodes taped to the skin on people's backs. The subjects, he found, could "see" large objects and flickering candles with their backs. The tongue, sensitive and easy to reach, turned out to be an even better place to deliver substitute senses, Dr. Bach-y-Rita said. Until recently sensory substitution was confined to the laboratory. But electronic miniaturization and more powerful computer algorithms are making the...

From the CBC : Health Canada fast tracks review of multiple sclerosis drug Last Updated Mon, 22 Nov 2004 21:28:46 EST TORONTO - Some Canadians with multiple sclerosis are encouraged by the early results of a study on a new kind of treatment for the disease. The drug Antegren prevents white blood cells from migrating to the central nervous system and flooding the brain, where the cells can cause damage. The study included 942 patients with relapsing-remitting MS, the earliest phase of the disease. After one year, patients on Antregen had two-thirds fewer relapses or attacks compared to patients given a placebo. "In general, you can say that this is the greatest therapeutic effects ever seen in year one for a trial of a multiple sclerosis drug," said Dr. Paul O'Connor, the lead Canadian investigator for the trial. [ ... Read the full report ... ] From the elan company website: Antegren/Tysabri (natalizumab) .

From a press release earlier today from Toronto's Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care: What happens in the brain when we remember our own past? Toronto, CANADA --Researchers are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to probe brain activity in search of the answer. According to a new fMRI study using a "diary" method to collect memories, it all depends on what we're thinking about! Researchers have known for decades that thinking about autobiographical facts is different from thinking about autobiographical episodes that happened only once. Since both kinds of thoughts can occur at the same time when people talk about their past, researchers have struggled to find an effective way to separate them. The new study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (16:9), is the first brain imaging study of its kind to use diary-like memories collected by volunteers. It was led by The Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest C...

This evening, the CBC news show The National reported on a study newly published in the New England Journal of Medicine . Part of the CBC website report follows, followed by a link to the study's abstract: Ultrasound may improve stroke treatment CBC Last Updated Thu, 18 Nov 2004 21:48:52 EST EDMONTON - Ultrasounds break up blood clots in the brain and may help to treat strokes, new research performed at Canadian hospitals suggests. A stroke occurs when a clot blocks a blood vessel and cuts off circulation. Doctors give a drug called TPA by intravenous to dissolve blood clots lodged in the brain. Dr. Maher Saqqur of the University of Alberta and his colleagues tested an experimental combination of TPA and ultrasound to treat stroke before brain tissues are starved of a blood supply. "What we find is that patients who receive the TPA plus the ultrasound do well compared to patients who get the TPA just by themselves," said Saqqur. The study looked a...

Google has announced and is online (beta version) with an academic search engine called "Google Scholar" - which "enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web." http://scholar.google.com About Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html Google Scholar FAQs http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html#faq

In the excellent Blue Stater fictional world of the administration of President Jed Bartlet on NBC’s The West Wing, a brief reference to brain-behavior functions played a minor plotline in this evening’s episode as the former Chief of Staff Leo McGarry reminds the new Chief of Staff C.J. Cregg to get the President to play chess with her at least once a week. This advisement is left as is until the end of the episode, when Leo reveals that this was his subtle way to attempt to discern whether the President’s “executive functions” were showing some degree of impairment. (For those new to the show, the President was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis prior to his first administration but did not reveal it publically until the time before his run for re-election several years ago). “Executive functions” are a specific set of higher order brain functions that have been the subject of much neuroscientific interest for many years now. There are many good references that an interested pers...

Starkstein SE, Garau ML, Cao A. Prevalence and clinical correlates of disinhibition in dementia. Cogn Behav Neurol. 2004 Sep; 17(3): 139-47. School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, and Fremantle Hospital, Fremantle, Australia. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: The phenomenology, main clinical correlates, and long-term evolution of disinhibition in dementia are not well known. To examine this issue, we studied a consecutive series of 272 patients with probable Alzheimer disease using a comprehensive psychiatric and neuropsychological evaluation that included the Disinhibition Scale. A subset of patients was reexamined with the same instruments between 1 and 4 years after the initial evaluation. RESULTS: A factor analysis of the Disinhibition Scale demonstrated 4 factors: (1) abnormal motor behavior, (2) hypomania, (3) loss of insight and egocentrism, and (4) poor self-care. Disinhibition was significantly associated with major and dysthymic depres...

Radanovic M, Mansur LL, Scaff M. Normative data for the Brazilian population in the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination: Influence of schooling. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2004 Nov;v37(11): 1731-8. Epub 2004 Oct 26. In Neurolinguistics, the use of diagnostic tests developed in other countries can create difficulties in the interpretation of results due to cultural, demographic and linguistic differences. In a country such as Brazil, with great social contrasts, schooling exerts a powerful influence on the abilities of normal individuals. The objective of the present study was to identify the influence of schooling on the performance of normal Brazilian individuals in the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE), in order to obtain reference values for the Brazilian population. We studied 107 normal subjects ranging in age from 15 to 84 years (mean +/- SD = 47.2 +/- 17.6 years), with educational level ranging from 1 to 24 years (9.9 +/- 4.8 years). Subjects were compared for scores...

Nature Reviews Neuroscience offers the full text ( HTML and .pdf ) of this interesting overview to language development in its November issue: Patricia K. Kuhl. Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code . Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2004. 5: 831-843. Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. Infants learn language with remarkable speed, but how they do it remains a mystery. New data show that infants use computational strategies to detect the statistical and prosodic patterns in language input, and that this leads to the discovery of phonemes and words. Social interaction with another human being affects speech learning in a way that resembles communicative learning in songbirds. The brain's commitment to the statistical and prosodic patterns that are experienced early in life might help to explain the long-standing puzzle of why infants are better la...

Here are some relevant highlights from this week’s major scientific and medical weeklies: Journal of the American Medical Association 10 November 2004 The current issue includes the paper: Kristine Yaffe et al. The Metabolic Syndrome, Inflammation, and Risk of Cognitive Decline . JAMA. 2004; 292: 2237-2242. New England Journal of Medicine 11 November 2004 This week’s issue includes a book review of an edited book by Nalin Gupta, Anuradha Banerjee, and Daphne Haas-Kogan: Pediatric CNS Tumors . Lancet 13 November 2004 This week’s issue includes the research paper The United Kingdom Infantile Spasms Study comparing vigabatrin with prednisolone or tetracosactide at 14 days: A multicentre, randomised controlled trial by Andrew L Lux and colleagues. Science 12 November 2004 This week’s issue includes several news reports from the recent Society for Neuroscience annual meeting.

Atchison TB, Bradshaw M, Massman PJ. Investigation of profile difference between Alzheimer's disease patients declining at different rates: Examination of baseline neuropsychological data. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 2004 Dec; 19(8): 1007-1015. Department of Psychology, University of Houston, USA. The rate of cognitive decline in AD has been noted to vary significantly among patients. The ability to predict the probable rate of decline early in the disease process would be of great practical importance. Attempts to analyze early cognitive deficits to find patterns associated with rapid decline have met with limited success. This paper utilized a large sample of patients with a diagnosis of probable AD evaluated longitudinally in ongoing research at the ADRC at Baylor College of Medicine and a statistical procedure of profile analysis to assess the initial data for a pattern associated with rapid decline. The findings indicated that despite initial equality of MMSE...

The 24th Annual Conference of the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN) will be held in Seattle, Washington from the 17th of November through the 20th. The conference will take place at the Westin Seattle. Information about the conference program and registration can be found at the NAN Conferences webpage.

The 04 November 2004 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has a useful review article about neonatal brain injury in its Medical Progress section: Donna M. Ferriero. Neonatal brain injury. New England Journal of Medicine 2004. 351(19): 1985-1995. Topics include hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy and neonatal stroke.

From this past Wednesday's Iowa City Press-Citizen : Damasio couple wins prestigious prize By the Press-Citizen 03 November 2004 Two physicians from the University of Iowa will receive an important honor at a ceremony Nov. 15 in the Salpetrière Hospital in Paris, France. UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine faculty members Antonio Damasio, M.D., Ph.D., the M.W. Van Allen Professor and Head of the UI Department of Neurology, and Hanna Damasio, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Neurology and director of the Human Neuroanatomy and Neuroimaging Laboratory, will receive the Jean-Louis Signoret Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience. La Fondation Ipsen sponsors the prize. The international jury cited the contributions of the Damasios to the neurobiological understanding of social cognition. This marks the first time that two investigators will share the prize. Previous recipients of the prestigious honor include neuroscientists Eric Kandel of Columbia University an...

A number of news sites are providing coverage of a study published in the current issues of The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology . Here is a version of the coverage from the New York Times : New Evidence on Main Cause of Cerebral Palsy By NICHOLAS BAKALAR The New York Times Published: November 2, 2004 A new study undermines the long-held belief among obstetricians that oxygen deprivation, or hypoxia, is the main cause of cerebral palsy in premature infants. The study, published in the October issue of The American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology , found that the brain injury that leads to cerebral palsy was much more commonly associated with infection than with hypoxia. The new findings, said Dr. Ernest Graham, an assistant professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Johns Hopkins and the lead author of the study, have important implications for both research and clinical practice. "This changes our thinking," Dr. ...

From tomorrow's New York Times : Alzheimer's Steals More Than Memory By DENISE GRADY The New York Times 02 November 2004 It happened without warning, early one day last summer as they prepared to go out. Gloria Rapport's husband raised his arm to her, fist poised. "He was very close to striking me," she said. What had provoked him? "Nothing," she said. "I asked him to get in the car." Mrs. Rapport's husband, Richard, 71, has Alzheimer's disease. His forgetfulness and confusion began about nine years ago, not long after they married. More recently, emotional troubles have loomed. Anxiety came first: he suddenly feared being left alone in the house. Outbursts of anger followed. The man she had always known to be kind and gentle could in an instant turn "cunning, nasty, aggressive, menacing," she said. “The behavioral changes I've seen are absolutely frightening," she said. "I understand n...

Here are some relevant highlights from this week’s major scientific and medical weeklies: New England Journal of Medicine 28 October 2004 This week’s issue includes several papers of interest, two on the topic on bacterial meningitis and the third is a case study of a patient with a frontal lobe lesion: Bacterial Meningitis — A View of the Past 90 Years by M. N. Swartz; Clinical Features and Prognostic Factors in Adults with Bacterial Meningitis by D. van de Beek and colleagues; and Case 33-2004 — A 34-Year-Old Man with a Seizure and a Frontal-Lobe Brain Lesion by E. N. Eskandar and colleagues. Science 29 October 2004 This week’s issue includes a research study that has been reported in quite a few public media outlets over the past few days in terms of the relation between stress and forgetfulness. Here is the abstract: Birnbaum SG, Yuan PX, Wang M, Vijayraghavan S, Bloom AK, Davis DJ, Gobeske KT, Sweatt JD, Manji HK, Arnsten AF. Protein kinase C overactivity impai...

A press release from Vanderbilt University discusses research seeking to develop more precise ways to stimulate individual neurons through the use of laser light: Stimulating Nerve Cells with Laser Precision Newswise — Biomedical engineers and physicians at Vanderbilt University have brought the day when artificial limbs will be controlled directly by the brain considerably closer by discovering a method that uses laser light, rather than electricity, to stimulate and control nerve cells. The researchers have discovered that low-intensity infrared laser light can spark specific nerves to life, exciting a leg or even individual toes without actually touching the nerve cells. “This technique brings nerve stimulation out of the Dark Ages,” said Vanderbilt Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery Anita Mahadevan-Jansen . “Much work is going on around the world trying to make electric nerve stimulation better, but the technique is inherently li...

Gorno-Tempini ML, Rankin KP, Woolley JD, Rosen HJ, Phengrasamy L, Miller BL. Cognitive and behavioral profile in a case of right anterior temporal lobe neurodegeneration. Cortex. 2004 Sep-Dec; 40(4-5): 631-44. University of California San Francisco Department of Neurology, San Francisco, CA, USA. Semantic dementia (SD) is a clinical variant of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) characterized by progressive deterioration of semantic memory with relative sparing of other cognitive functions. It is associated with mainly left anterior temporal atrophy, and is also referred to as "left-temporal lobe variant" of FTLD. Recently, patients with mainly right-sided atrophy, or "right-temporal lobe variant"(RTLV), have been described. While some authors have reported that the initial and most significant deficit in these right-sided cases is a difficulty in recognizing famous people, others have observed that major behavioral abnormalities are the presenting symp...

From the New York Times website: Lilly to Buy Insomnia Compound By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: October 28, 2004 Filed at 11:21 a.m. ET INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Eli Lilly and Co. will pay a German pharmaceutical company $29 million for the rights to an experimental compound the Indianapolis-based drug maker hopes can become its first product to treat insomnia. The compound, discovered by Merck KGaA, has the potential to be a new way to treat sleep disorder, without being addictive or causing unwelcome side effects, said Darryle D. Schoepp, vice president of neuroscience discovery research at Lilly. "This could be really a very important medical advance in the treatment of sleep disorders,'" he said Wednesday. In addition to purchasing the compound, Lilly will make milestone payments to Merck as the drug moves through testing, plus pay royalties on any sales. Merck keeps rights to co-promote the compound in certain countries. Called EMD 281014,...

The CBS show "60 Minutes Wednesday" aired a piece last evening, A Hole in His Head , which accounts the story of one person's pallidotomy in 1995 and visits with him again in 2004. From CBS: Parkinson's disease is a heartbreaking illness that causes frozen, stone-faced stillness in those afflicted. Correspondent Morley Safer reports on the story of one man, Fred Amphlett of Bristol, England, who had been a prisoner of Parkinson's for years. When Safer first met him in 1995, he was about to undergo an operation called a pallidotomy, once used by doctors to ease the agonies of Parkinson's. It was not a cure, nor was it for everyone. But for Amphlett, it was his last hope. [ ... Read the full transcript ... ]

From Wired News, another presentation from Neuroscience 2004 : Advent of the Robotic Monkeys By David Cohn 01:00 PM Oct. 26, 2004 PT Wired News If a monkey is hungry but has his arms pinned, there's not much he can do about it. Unless that monkey can control a nearby robotic arm with his brain. And that's exactly what the monkey in Andrew Schwartz 's neurobiology lab at the University of Pittsburgh can do, feeding himself using a prosthetic arm controlled solely by his thoughts. If mastered, the technology could be used to help spinal cord injuries, amputees or stroke victims. "I still think prosthetics is at an early stage ... but this is a big step in the right direction," said Chance Spalding, a bioengineering graduate student who worked on the project. [snip] The unique aspect of Schwartz's research is that he conducted what is known as "closed loop" brain experiments. In a "closed loop" experiment, the monkey is c...

A company press release concerning a presentation at Neuroscience 2004 : Vasogen's VP025 Provides a Neuroprotective Effect in Preclinical Model of Parkinson's Disease TORONTO, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Vasogen Inc. (NASDAQ:VSGN; TSX:VAS), a researcher and developer of immune modulation therapies targeting chronic inflammation, today announced the presentation of preclinical research demonstrating the ability of VP025 to provide a significant neuroprotective effect in a model of Parkinson's disease. The research, carried out by the Department of Anatomy/Neuroscience, Biosciences Institute, University College Cork, Ireland, was presented at Neuroscience 2004 , the Society for Neuroscience's 34th Annual Meeting in San Diego. "The ability of VP025 to offer a protective effect in the brain and reduce neuron death in this preclinical model suggests that this drug may have potential in the treatment of Parkinson's disease," said Dr. Aideen Sullivan,...

A number of news reports are beginning to be published from presentations at Neuroscience 2004 , the ongoing conference of the Society for Neuroscience . Here is one press release from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions concerning a presentation about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): Olfactory Bulb Stem Cells and Lou Gehrig's Disease Johns Hopkins researchers have found that transplants of mouse stem cells taken from the adult brain's olfactory bulb can delay symptoms and death in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Read the abstract for Transplantation of Adult Olfactory Bulb Neural Stem Cells Delays Disease Onset and Prolongs Survival in a Mouse ALS Model by L.J. Martin and Z. Liu. [ ... Read the full press release ... ]

Here are some relevant highlights from this week’s major scientific and medical weeklies: Journal of the American Medical Association 20 October 2004 This week’s JAMA has a number of contributions on the subject of the diagnosis and treatment of strokes. New England Journal of Medicine 21 October 2004 This week’s issue contains a research paper and an editorial on the topic of Tuberculous meningitis: Abstract for Dexamethasone for the Treatment of Tuberculous Meningitis in Adolescents and Adults by Thwaites and colleagues and an extract of the editorial, Adjunctive Steroids for Tuberculous Meningitis - More Evidence, More Questions by Quagliarello. Lancet 23 October 2004 The current issue includes the paper, Interferon beta-1a for brain tissue loss in patients at presentation with syndromes suggestive of multiple sclerosis: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial by Filippi and colleagues. Science 22 October 2004 This week’s issue has a speci...

Neuroscience 2004, the Society For Neuroscience's 34th Annual Meeting, begins in San Diego tomorrow and continues until Wednesday, the 27th. To read more about the conference and the Society, click here .

This week's free access full-text paper in the new issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association addresses the relative value of CT vs. MRI imaging in the initial evaluation of acute CVA symptoms. Click here for the full paper; the abstract follows: Chelsea S. Kidwell, MD; Julio A. Chalela, MD; Jeffrey L. Saver, MD; Sidney Starkman, MD; Michael D. Hill, MD; et al. Comparison of MRI and CT for Detection of Acute Intracerebral Hemorrhage . JAMA.  2004; 292: 1823-1830. ABSTRACT Context.  Noncontrast computed tomography (CT) is the standard brain imaging study for the initial evaluation of patients with acute stroke symptoms. Multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been proposed as an alternative to CT in the emergency stroke setting. However, the accuracy of MRI relative to CT for the detection of hyperacute intracerebral hemorrhage has not been demonstrated. Objective.  To compare the accuracy of MRI and CT for detection of acute intracerebral...

Anyone who's seen the movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , has thought about the question. Many may be surprised that a number of neuroscientists and drug developers have been asking the same question. The issue comes up when thinking of the topic of so-called "cosmetic neurology," but also arises when considering very serious acute mental trauma. Today's Washington Post includes an article exploring this question: Is Every Memory Worth Keeping? Controversy Over Pills to Reduce Mental Trauma By Rob Stein Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, October 19, 2004; Page A01 [snip] Proponents say it could lead to pills that prevent or treat PTSD in soldiers coping with the horrors of battle, torture victims recovering from brutalization, survivors who fled the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and other victims of severe, psychologically devastating experiences. "Some memories can be very disruptive. They come back to you when you...

Last week's news had several reports about a new functional MRI study looking at taste preferences and brand loyalty. Here is the abstract of that study: McClure SM, Li J, Tomlin D, Cypert KS, Montague LM, Montague PR. Neural correlates of behavioral preference for culturally familiar drinks. Neuron. 2004 Oct 14; 44(2): 379-87. Department of Neuroscience, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030 USA. Coca-Cola((R)) (Coke((R))) and Pepsi((R)) are nearly identical in chemical composition, yet humans routinely display strong subjective preferences for one or the other. This simple observation raises the important question of how cultural messages combine with content to shape our perceptions; even to the point of modifying behavioral preferences for a primary reward like a sugared drink. We delivered Coke and Pepsi to human subjects in behavioral taste tests and also in passive experiments carrie...

Today's Yale Daily News includes an article about last week's announcement about the initiative to examine imaging technologies in the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease. The article is interesting to read of itself, but also because it touches briefly upon the concern of the neuropsychological community about the important role of neuropsychological assessment in the assessment of the cognitive changes that are diagnostically relevant: Scientists seek earlier Alzheimer's diagnoses BY ALBERTO MASLIAH Contributing Reporter Yale Daily News Published Monday, October 18, 2004 [snip] Currently, neuropsychological assessment is the most widely used instrument for neurocognitive ability and its deterioration. The introduction of imaging analysis used to differentiate which patients with mild cognitive impairment will progress to Alzheimer's and how far an Alzheimer's patient has progressed is relatively new. Within the ...

Tomorrow's New York Times Sunday Magazine has a short piece written by someone who lost her sense of smell and her effort to try to find it once again: Something's Off By ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG 17 October 2004 The New York Times [Snip] Smell is the stepchild of the senses, the one that many think they could do without. But when I couldn't smell things, I couldn't fully inhabit the world, and my movements in it were somehow, almost imperceptibly, more clumsy. This month, when the Nobel Prize was awarded to two researchers for investigating the science of smell, it brought back my mixed feelings about my own sense of smell's protracted disappearance. It vanished in 2002, a result of a bad fall. As my neurosurgeon explained, when my head hit the ground, my brain sloshed around, which smashed delicate nerve endings in my olfactory system. Maybe they'll repair themselves, she said (in what struck me as much too casual a tone), and maybe they won't...

Host G. [Prosopagnosia--incapacity to recognize faces] Lakartidningen. 2004 Aug 26;101(35):2661-2. Swedish. No abstract available. PMID: 15458222 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Duchaine BC, Dingle K, Butterworth E, Nakayama K. Normal greeble learning in a severe case of developmental prosopagnosia. Neuron. 2004 Aug 19;43(4):469-73. PMID: 15312646 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Hadjikhani N, Joseph RM, Snyder J, Chabris CF, Clark J, Steele S, McGrath L, Vangel M, Aharon I, Feczko E, Harris GJ, Tager-Flusberg H. Activation of the fusiform gyrus when individuals with autism spectrum disorder view faces. Neuroimage. 2004 Jul;22(3):1141-50. PMID: 15219586 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Larner AJ. Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty: an early report of prosopagnosia? J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2004 Jul;75(7):1063. No abstract available. PMID: 15201376 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Yamasaki T, Taniwaki T, Tobimatsu S, Arakawa K, Kuba H, Maeda Y, Kuwabara Y, Shida K, ...

From a press release by the National Institute on Aging : National Institute on Aging, Industry Launch Partnership, 60 Million Dollar Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative    Wednesday, October 13, 2004, 10 a.m. ET Contact:   Vicky Cahan                Doug Dollemore                (301) 496-1752 The National Institute on Aging (NIA) in conjunction with other Federal agencies, private companies and organizations today launched a $60 million, 5-year public-private partnership—the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative—to test whether serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), other biological markers, and clinical and neuropsychological assessment can be combined to measure the progression of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study could help researchers and clinicians develop new treatments and monitor their effectiveness as well as lessen the time and cost of clinical trials. The...

The New York Times provides an interesting feature piece in its Circuits section tomorrow about the use of the Segway Human Transporter by individuals with various disabilities. It should also be noted that the creator of the Segway has developed a less-well-known wheelchair that can raise a person closer to eye level than a standard wheelchair and that can climb stairs. Oft-Scorned Segway Finds Friends Among the Disabled By RACHEL METZ Published: October 14, 2004 WHIRRING quietly down the sidewalk on East 42nd Street and into a Starbucks one recent afternoon, Chandler Hovey drew looks and comments from passers-by. What was most eye-catching was his means of transport: the Segway Human Transporter , a two-wheeled, gyroscopically balanced electric scooter. What was less evident, except to those close enough to spot the blue handicapped symbol on his scooter, was that he is disabled. Mr. Hovey, 63, a money manager, has multiple sclerosis. For almost 18 months, his ...

Usually, the weekly online issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association includes the full text of one of its articles available on a free-access basis. Today's new issue has as its "free access" choice a report on trends in rehabilitation care: [ access the article here ]. A .pdf version is also available at the access page. Here is the paper's abstract: Kenneth J. Ottenbacher, PhD, OTR; Pam M. Smith, DNS, RN; Sandra B. Illig, MS, RN; Richard T. Linn, PhD; Glenn V. Ostir, PhD; Carl V. Granger, MD. Trends in Length of Stay, Living Setting, Functional Outcome, and Mortality Following Medical Rehabilitation. JAMA.  2004; 292: 1687-1695. Context.  Changes in reimbursement have reduced length of stay (LOS) for patients receiving inpatient medical rehabilitation. The impact of decreased LOS on functional status, living setting, and mortality is not known. Objective.  To examine changes in LOS, functional status, living setting, and mortality ...

The Washington Post reports on the approval by the FDA of the use of implantable radio-frequency microchips for medical information applications. As the article suggests, some neurological patients may fall within the targeted applications of this product. FDA Approves Implantable Chip for Medical Records By Diedtra Henderson AP Science Writer Wednesday, October 13, 2004; 2:05 PM WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an implantable computer chip that can pass a patient's medical details to doctors, speeding care. VeriChips, radio frequency microchips the size of a grain of rice, have already been used to identify wayward pets and livestock. And nearly 200 people working in Mexico's attorney general's office have been implanted with chips to access secure areas containing sensitive documents. Delray Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital Solutions said it would give away $650 scanners to roughly 200 trauma centers around...

A new study about the relation between the brain and bilinualism, as presented in a Reuters news report : Learning 2nd Language Changes Brain Anatomy - Study Wed 13 October, 2004 19:18 By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - Being bilingual produces changes in the anatomy of the brain, scientists said on Wednesday in finding that could explain why children are so much better than adults at mastering a second language. They found that people who speak two languages have more gray matter in the language region of the brain. The earlier they learned the language, the larger the gray area. "The gray matter in this region increases in bilinguals relative to monolinguals -- this is particularly true in early bilinguals who learned a second language early in life," said Andrea Mechelli, a neuroscientist at University College London. "The degree is correlated with the proficiency achieved." Learning another language after 35 years old also alters...

Over the past few months, there have been a number of stories in the media about the topic of deep brain stimulation and its possible applications in the near future. The following article comes from Canada’s Globe and Mail : Surgery helps short-circuit Tourette's syndrome By PAUL TAYLOR From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Jeff Matovic used to eat with a plastic spoon to prevent himself from accidentally gouging out one of his eyes.The 31-year-old has Tourette's syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary muscle movements. Mr. Matovic, who developed symptoms at age 3, could not sit, walk or even sleep without his body exploding in an endless series of jerking motions and verbal outbursts. He has broken glasses in his bare hands and dented walls with his head because of sudden muscle contractions. Things got so bad, Mr. Matovic sought out doctors who would implant electrodes in his brain to quiet his restless body, after hearing about another patien...