Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Jan 2019
ReviewInterrogating cortical function with transcranial magnetic stimulation: insights from neurodegenerative disease and stroke.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an accessible, non-invasive technique to study cortical function in vivo. TMS studies have provided important pathophysiological insights across a range of neurodegenerative disorders and enhanced our understanding of brain reorganisation after stroke. In neurodegenerative disease, TMS has provided novel insights into the function of cortical output cells and the related intracortical interneuronal networks. ⋯ These insights are critical to the development of effective and targeted rehabilitation strategies in stroke. The present review will provide an overview of cortical function measures obtained using TMS and how such measures may provide insight into brain function. Through an improved understanding of cortical function across a range of neurodegenerative disorders, and identification of changes in neural structure and function associated with stroke that underlie clinical recovery, more targeted therapeutic approaches may now be developed in an evolving era of precision medicine.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Jan 2019
Different neuroinflammatory profile in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia is linked to the clinical phase.
To investigate the role of neuroinflammation in asymptomatic and symptomatic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) mutation carriers. ⋯ Our data indicate that neuroinflammation is linked to the symptomatic phase of ALS/FTD and shows a similar pattern in sporadic and genetic cases. ALS and FTD are characterised by a different neuroinflammatory profile, which might be one driver of the diverse presentations of the ALS/FTD syndrome.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Jan 2019
Immediate verbal recall and familial dementia risk: population-based study of over 4000 twins.
To investigate the effect of familial risk for dementia on verbal learning by comparing cognitively healthy twins who had demented co-twins with cognitively healthy twins who had cognitively healthy co-twins. ⋯ The results demonstrate that familial risk for dementia is reflected in the IR performance of cognitively healthy older persons. The finding of poorer IR performance in non-affected siblings compared with the general population, together with substantial heritability of IR, supports IR as a useful endophenotype for molecular genetic studies of dementia.