BrainBlog

In tomorrow's New York Times Sunday Magazine : Total Recall By GARY MARCUS Published: April 13, 2008 "How much would you pay to have a small memory chip implanted in your brain if that chip would double the capacity of your short-term memory? Or guarantee that you would never again forget a face or a name?" [... Read the full article ...]

The AAN conference takes place this week. Look for some interesting reports of dementia pharmaceutical clinical trials. Visit the conference website: [ Link ].

Kranick SM, & Duda JE. Olfactory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease. Neurosignals. 2008; 16(1): 35-40. Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Prior to the onset of the cardinal motor features of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), other manifestations of neurodegeneration such as olfactory dysfunction are often apparent. Characterizing these potential biomarkers of preclinical PD is particularly important in identifying individuals who will go on to develop disabling symptoms, and thus be good candidates for new neuroprotective strategies. As shown by the Braak neuropathologic staging of PD, the olfactory system is among the first neuronal populations to display Lewy body pathology. Clinically, loss of smell can be easily tested in the office using several validated techniques and is often helpful to the physician in distinguishing idiopathic PD from other forms of parkinsonism. Recent findings have indicated that a...

Pagonabarraga J, Kulisevsky J, Llebaria G, García-Sánchez C, Pascual-Sedano B, & Gironell A. Parkinson's disease-cognitive rating scale: A new cognitive scale specific for Parkinson's disease. Movement Disorders. 2008 Mar 31 [Epub ahead of print]. Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Sant Pau Hospital, Autonomous University of Barcelona, and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Spain. Cognitive defects associated with cortical pathology may be a marker of dementia in Parkinson's disease (PD). There is a need to improve the diagnostic criteria of PD dementia (PDD) and to clarify the cognitive impairment patterns associated with PD. Current neuropsychological batteries designed for PD are focused on fronto-subcortical deficits but are not sensitive for cortical dysfunction. We developed a new scale, the Parkinson's Disease-Cognitive Rating Scale (PD-CRS), that was designed to cover the full spectrum of...