Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2013
Lies tell the truth about cognitive dysfunction in essential tremor: an experimental deception study with the guilty knowledge task.
Research conducted in the past decade challenges the traditional view that essential tremor (ET) is characterised exclusively by movement disorder, and increasingly shows that these patients have deficits in cognitive and behavioural functioning. The available evidence suggests that this impairment might arise from dysfunction in either the fronto-subcortical or cortico-cerebellar circuits. Although abnormalities in the fronto-subcortical circuits could imply difficulty in lying, no study has investigated deception in patients with ET. ⋯ Besides confirming impaired deception in patients with PD, our results show a lie production deficit in patients with ET also. These findings suggest that difficulty in lying is an aspecific cognitive feature in movement disorders characterised by fronto-subcortical circuit dysfunction, such as PD and ET. Current knowledge along with our new findings in patients with ET--possibly arising from individually unrecognised extremely mild, cognitive difficulties--should help in designing specific rehabilitative programmes to improve cognitive and behavioural disturbances in patients.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2013
Long-term subthalamic nucleus stimulation improves sensorimotor integration and proprioception.
Sensorimotor integration is impaired in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Short latency afferent inhibition (SAI) and long latency afferent inhibition (LAI) measured with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to measure sensorimotor integration. Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been found to restore these abnormalities, but the time course of these changes is not known. We prospectively evaluated the short-term and long-term effects of STN DBS on SAI, LAI and proprioception. We hypothesised plasticity changes induced by chronic stimulation are necessary to normalise sensorimotor integration and proprioception. ⋯ Chronic STN DBS in PD normalises sensorimotor integration and proprioception, likely through long-term plastic changes in the basal ganglia thalamocortical circuit.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2013
Association between the rs1333040 polymorphism on the chromosomal 9p21 locus and sporadic brain arteriovenous malformations.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 9p21 have been recently associated with intracranial aneurysms and stroke. In this study, we tested the association between the rs1333040C>T polymorphism on the 9p21 locus and sporadic brain arteriovenous malformations (BAVMs). ⋯ This is the first study demonstrating an association between an SNP of the 9p21 region and sporadic BAVMs. Our results emphasise the relevance of this chromosomal locus as a common risk factor for various forms of cerebrovascular diseases.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Sep 2013
Editorial CommentDegenerator tau/TDP-43: rise of the machines.