Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie
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Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr · Oct 2009
Review Case Reports Historical Article[Remembering an amnesic patient (and half a century of memory research)].
The development of memory research is inextricably bound to the fate of patient HM. On the occasion of his death, the circumstances are remembered, which lead to the bilateral removal of parts of his medio-temporal cortex in 1953. And the importance of the subsequent more than a half-century of research about his postoperative amnesic deficits as well as remaining learning and memory functions are outlined. ⋯ Later investigations lead to question the unity of memory itself and forced a more and more differentiated description of different kinds of memory and their associations with separate neuroanatomical structures. A simplified summary of the resulting recent ideas of declarative memory systems is presented together with an outline of connections to their supporting medio-temporal, diencephalic and frontal-cortical structures. Finally, an attempt is made to address the question about the impact on the person HM of not having been able to form consciously retrievable memories from age 27 until his death at age of 82, thus having to rely for a reconstruction of his life on memories from child- and young adulthood as well as single momentary short-lived experiences.
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Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is associated with a chronic demyelinating and axonal injury to the central nervous system. Functional activation studies in MS patients have demonstrated that performance of simple motor tasks may activate non-canonical brain regions. ⋯ Rapid-onset neuronal plasticity in patients with mild-to-moderate MS is uncompromised despite many plasticity-impeding factors. Long-term adaptive mechanisms, relying on the formation on new neuronal connections, most likely are the principal mechanism underlying compensation of brain injury in MS.
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Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr · Aug 2009
Review Historical Article[Disciplinary differentiation under socialist conditions--the establishment of neurology at the University of Rostock in East Germany].
The move towards disciplinary independence in Germany turned out to be more troublesome than in France or Great Britain and real institutional independence was not established at German universities until the 1970s of the 20th century, and this in the Federal Republic of Germany only. In East Germany (German Democratic Republic--GDR), a division into Chairs of Psychiatry and Neurology took place at individual universities and medical colleges only. ⋯ One such exception was the University of Rostock, where as early as 1958, the Chair of Psychiatry had been divided into three independent Chairs of Psychiatry, Neurology and Child Psychiatry. Besides internal scientific factors, socio-political constraints played a particular role here and had an influence on the disciplinary differentiation.
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Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr · Aug 2009
Review[Pathophysiology of neuronal injury in bacterial meningitis and experimental adjunctive therapeutic approaches].
In bacterial meningitis, death and long-term neurological sequelae are caused jointly by several factors. Despite highly qualified intensive care and effective antibacterial therapy mortality rates remain high. ⋯ The only approved adjunctive therapy so far is corticosteroids. The use of nonbacteriolytic, protein-synthesis inhibiting antibiotics in experimental models of pneumococcal meningitis appeared to be a promising therapeutic approach towards neuroprotection by diminishing the inflammatory process.