Nöroloji/Nöroşirurji

Degenerative cervical spondylosis is a chronic, progressive deterioration of osseocartilaginous components of the cervical spine that is most often related to aging. Radiographic evidence of degeneration of the cervical spine occurs in virtually all persons as they age; however, not

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 14, Page 1587-1596, July 15, 2020.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a heterogeneous disorder of progressive degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons that typically leads to death from ventilatory failure within 5 years after the onset of illness. Genetic factors account for half of the

Krabbe disease is characterized by GALC deficiency and Schwann cell impairment. In a recent issue of Neuron, Weinstock et al. (2020) show that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, an established therapy, improves pathology in a mouse model through an unexpected GALC-dependent mechanism,

Mood fluctuations are common during normal daily life as a result of either stressful or pleasant events. However, severe and persistent mood swings that result in psychological distress and behavioral impairment may be symptomatic of an underlying affective disorder. Affective

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 13, Page 1491-1503, July 1, 2020.

To the Editor: From February 28 through March 21, 2020, in three hospitals in northern Italy, we examined five patients who had Guillain–Barré syndrome after the onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome

Figure 1.

JNNP 2020—a centenary of publishing neuroscience achievement Late last year, the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (JNNP) polled readers, asking them to nominate the single most important or transformative development in neurology, neurosurgery or psychiatry in the past 100

In this issue of Neuron, Issler et al. (2020) have identified the neuronal, long intergenic noncoding RNA LINC00473 as a potential molecular risk factor for the increased susceptibility for depression in females.

The European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress took place virtually this year, on May 23–26. The event attracted more than 42 000 participants, compared with around 6000 participants in previous years. Somewhat surprisingly, the Congress has reached a very different audience—only

To the Editor: Neurologic symptoms, including headache, altered mental status, and anosmia, occur in many patients with Covid-19. We report the neuropathological findings from autopsies of 18 consecutive patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection who died in a single teaching hospital between

To the Editor: We report the neurologic features in an observational series of 58 of 64 consecutive patients admitted to the hospital because of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to Covid-19. The patients received similar evaluations by intensivists in

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 12, Page 1381-1391, June 15, 2020.

In this issue of Neuron, Fernandes et al. (2020) compare intra-gastric sugar and non-caloric sweetener to investigate how post-ingestive effects can be reinforcing, revealing a role for the hepatic vagus nerve in transforming sugar sensing by the gut into behavioral reinforcement

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 11, Page 1269-1282, June 1, 2020.

COVID-19 has profoundly disrupted the normal rhythms of life. It is hard to anticipate the full impact of the pandemic as we write this in March 2020, with almost daily changes in advice for both the population and medical staff.

Since WHO declared COVID-19 as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on January 30, 2020, neurologists’ lives have changed in many ways. Now—almost 4 months later—the impact of COVID-19 on neurological services and patients is profound. COVID-19 and mandatory

Endovascular thrombectomy has become part of the standard treatment for patients who have acute ischemic stroke due to large-vessel occlusion in the anterior cerebral circulation, when the procedure is available and can be performed in a timely fashion or is

Chen et al present data describing millisecond interactions in a human hyperdirect pathway that connects the inferior frontal gyrus and the subthalamic nucleus. They study this circuit during a stop-signal task in the context of inhibitory control.

Taking the patient perspective has led to increasing recognition of the importance of depression and other non-motor features in Parkinson’s disease Twenty years ago, we published a paper examining which of the clinical features of Parkinson’s disease (PD) were most

To rapidly communicate information on the global clinical effort against Covid-19, the Journal has initiated a series of case reports that offer important teaching points or novel findings. The case reports should be viewed as observations rather than as recommendations

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 10, Page 1183-1189, May 15, 2020.

To the Editor: The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on medical care for conditions other than Covid-19 has been difficult to quantify. Any decrease in care for patients with acute conditions such as ischemic stroke may be consequential because timely

In this issue of Neuron, Lennox et al. (2020) report the largest cohort of patients to date with DDX3X syndrome, discovering unique genotype-phenotype relationships that inform molecular pathogenesis. They then uncover unique roles of DDX3X in cortical neuron development and ribonucleoprotein

Endovascular thrombectomy has been shown to be safe and effective for the treatment of appropriately selected patients with acute ischemic stroke up to 24 hours after symptom onset. Several trials are attempting to expand the selection criteria for thrombectomy, in

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 9, Page 1127-1139, May 1, 2020.

Examination of the optic nerves is a fundamental component of the clinical examination, but direct ophthalmoscopy is usually avoided or poorly performed by general physicians and nonophthalmic specialists. Detection of papilledema, defined as optic-nerve edema from intracranial hypertension, and…

To rapidly communicate information on the global clinical effort against Covid-19, the Journal has initiated a series of case reports that offer important teaching points or novel findings. The case reports should be viewed as observations rather than as recommendations

Figure 1.

Homeostatic plasticity rules are well described for glutamatergic synapses but less clear for GABAergic synapses. In this issue of Neuron, Pan-Vazquez et al. (2020) leverage the precise targeting of chandelier-to-pyramidal cell connectivity to understand how homeostatic plasticity regulates GABAergic synapses, showing

To the Editor: From February 28 through March 21, 2020, in three hospitals in northern Italy, we examined five patients who had Guillain–Barré syndrome after the onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, recently hosted what will probably be one of the last in-person neurology conferences for some time. The first Global Stroke Alliance meeting, held on March 11–13, 2020, ended a day early because of the COVID-19 pandemic,

In late March, Zoran Lasic, an interventional cardiologist at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, was finishing afternoon clinic when he was approached by a nurse colleague seeking his advice. Her husband — a 56-year-old

To the Editor: From February 28 through March 21, 2020, in three hospitals in northern Italy, we examined five patients who had Guillain–Barré syndrome after the onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome

A French surgeon, Henri Laborit, discovered the first antipsychotic drug, chlorpromazine (Thorazine), in 1952 while experimenting with compounds to enhance anesthesia. Since then, antipsychotic drugs have helped transform the lives of people with schizophrenia, allowing most to live in the…

To the Editor: We report the neurologic features in an observational series of 58 of 64 consecutive patients admitted to the hospital because of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to Covid-19. The patients received similar evaluations by intensivists in

Today cognitive models are bound to impact on neurorehabilitation and define patient profiles, which respond to specific therapeutic interventions The seminal paper by Tatemichi and colleagues1 sets a cornerstone for the diagnosis of poststroke cognitive impairment. The authors documented the

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 8, Page 1021-1028, April 15, 2020.

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 7, Page 907-923, April 1, 2020.

Presentation of Case. Dr. Sarimer Sanchez (Medicine): A 37-year-old man was admitted to this hospital because of a facial droop, dysarthria, and kidney failure. The patient had been well until 1 week before admission, when weakness of the right arm

Experiments identify cortical layer specific effects during induced arousal from general anesthesia. In this issue of Neuron, Redinbaugh et al. (2020) find evidence that central lateral thalamic nucleus electrical stimulation reactivates the cortex by restoring deep-layer firing rates and modulating feedforward

Foreword. In this Journal feature, information about a real patient is presented in stages (boldface type) to an expert clinician, who responds to the information by sharing relevant background and reasoning with the reader (regular type). The authors’ commentary follows.

The practice of sedating patients receiving mechanical ventilation has been standard care. Although advances in technology have made modern ventilators more comfortable for patients, it has generally been believed that light sedation should accompany mechanical ventilation. However, trials…

In this issue of Neuron, Sinha et al. (2020) demonstrate that synaptic organization at rod bipolar cell terminals is regulated by a leucine-rich repeat protein, LRRTM4. LRRTM4 is expressed specifically by rod bipolar cells; eliminating it in mouse retina perturbs the

Every day, the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, bustles with the activity of meetings held by lobbyists trying to influence decision-making. But now that the European Union (EU) is negotiating the Multiannual Financial Framework for the 2021–27 budget, the frenzy

‘No man is an island entire of itself…’.1 We can be certain that John Donne was not thinking about the inter-relationships between medical specialties when he wrote those lines in 1642 but such is the resonance of the ideas that

It took Mogens Schou and his collaborators two decades to get lithium accepted for the prevention of mania. Along the way he was vilified and his scientific objectivity questioned. These regrettable delays led to many unnecessary suicides. More profitable rebranded

Before she arrived, it was as if she had already left. Her chart was riddled with indicators. This past February, when she had her first stroke, she had left the hospital against medical advice. Two months later, when she had

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 6, Page 831-838, March 15, 2020.

Pituitary adenomas account for approximately 15% of intracranial tumors. Management of these benign tumors requires diagnosis of the specific intrasellar disease and comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment of local mass effects and peripheral endocrinopathies. Since tumors can produce different…

Lipid-processing mechanisms during demyelination are poorly understood. In this issue of Neuron, Nugent et al. (2020) show by cell-specific lipidomics that Trem 2 deficiency leads to cholesterol ester (CE) overload in microglia. This is mediated by misregulation of lipid metabolism genes

Syphilis was first recognized in Europe in the late 15th century; its cause, Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum, was identified four centuries later. The advent of penicillin, together with effective public health measures, was responsible for a marked decline in syphilis

Prurigo nodularis is a subtype of chronic prurigo that causes a highly pruritic, chronic disease characterized by hyperkeratotic, crusted or excoriated, light-red to bright-red nodules (lesions may be hyperpigmented depending on skin type). Skin lesions may range in number from

Balance between excitation and inhibition (E-I balance) in neural circuits is believed to be tightly regulated. To the contrary, in this issue of Neuron, Bridi et al. (2020) reveal that inverse oscillations of synaptic inhibition and excitation lead to peaks and

Neuromuscular diseases have a substantial burden on patients, their caregivers, and healthcare systems. These diseases are largely genetic, degenerative, and life-threatening or life-altering. The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) has been at the forefront of research, therapy development, and early intervention

The practice of sedating patients receiving mechanical ventilation has been standard care. Although advances in technology have made modern ventilators more comfortable for patients, it has generally been believed that light sedation should accompany mechanical ventilation. However, trials…

Presentation of Case. Dr. Madeline L. Keyes (Pediatrics): A 32-day-old male infant was transferred to the emergency department and admitted to this hospital for evaluation of suspected abusive head trauma. On the evening of admission, the patient’s mother called emergency

At a time of increasing specialisation in journal publishing it is remarkable that a journal combining neurology and psychiatry has stood the test of time. At the start of the 20th century, a number of international neurology journals such as

I walked into the hospital room in the early morning and observed the patient from across the room. As a physician, you start observing, gathering clues, from the moment you enter the door. The patient was disheveled, sprawled in bed

Placebo and nocebo effects are the effects of patients’ positive and negative expectations, respectively, concerning their state of health. These effects occur in many clinical contexts, including treatment with an active agent or a placebo in clinical practice or in

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 4, Page 581-592, February 15, 2020.

I walked into the hospital room in the early morning and observed the patient from across the room. As a physician, you start observing, gathering clues, from the moment you enter the door. The patient was disheveled, sprawled in bed

A current major challenge lies in controlling molecularly defined brain-receptor and channel populations to investigate their function in vivo. In this issue of Neuron, Acosta-Ruiz et al. (2020) developed a highly versatile molecular toolkit to efficiently manipulate specific metabotropic glutamate receptor subtypes

Presentation of Case. Dr. Nino Mihatov: A 52-year-old woman was evaluated for a new wide-complex tachycardia that developed while she was hospitalized for the management of seizures. Five days before the development of tachycardia, the patient had been admitted to

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 3, Page 431-440, February 1, 2020.

To the Editor: Cerebral tissues in human remains are rare archaeological discoveries. These tissues are typically saponified, meaning that their triglycerides have been converted to glycerol and fatty acid salts, or soap. In c.e. 79, a volcanic hot ash avalanche

Neuronal population responses can vary across trials as a result of differences in the relative timing of internal brain processes. In this issue of Neuron, Williams et al. (2020) present an algorithm for inferring and inverting such trial-to-trial differences, thereby revealing

Advances in the care of infants born before 28 weeks of gestation have been associated with a dramatic improvement in survival. However, one or more major impairments (e.g. cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, deafness, or blindness) develop in approximately 40% of

There is a crisis of reproducible research in neuroscience. At least, that is the view of the British Neuroscience Association (BNA). The BNA has witnessed huge scientific progress since its establishment in the 1960s, but contends that “Recent decades, however,

Throughout the world, approximately 800,000 people die by suicide every year, accounting for 1.5% of all deaths. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in North America and the foremost cause of death worldwide among persons 15 to 24

Advances in the care of infants born before 28 weeks of gestation have been associated with a dramatic improvement in survival. However, one or more major impairments (e.g. cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, deafness, or blindness) develop in approximately 40% of

A good slogan often helps to get an idea across. Politicians and advertisers love a simple phrase that captures the central idea of their manifesto or the unique selling point of their product. The same is true in medicine. The

The autonomic nervous system innervates all body organs, including the cardiovascular system. Smooth muscle in arteries, arterioles, and veins and pericytes in capillaries receive autonomic innervation, which modulates vascular smooth-muscle tone and vessel diameter. Afferent sensory neurons with…

This editorial comments on a large prospective study of GBS in which a second course of intravenous immunoglobulin was unhelpful In 1988, in the first large-scale prospective study of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), John Winer and colleagues collected and followed 100

In this issue of Neuron, Joffe et al. (2020) assess the antidepressant-relevant effects and underlying neural mechanisms of negative allosteric modulators selective for either metabotropic glutamate receptors 2 (mGlu2) or 3 (mGlu3). Negative modulation of both receptors enhanced excitatory glutamatergic input

Intensive therapy to lower serum lipid levels with the use of statins is recommended after transient ischemic attack (TIA) or ischemic stroke of atherosclerotic origin. These recommendations are based on the results of the Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 2, Page 217-226, January 15, 2020.

Presentation of Case. Dr. Marcus T. Altman (Medicine): A 26-year-old woman with a history of migraines was evaluated in the emergency department of this hospital during the winter because of headache. Three weeks before this presentation, the patient had traveled

This editorial discusses the importance of improving awareness of stroke in young individuals. Stoke can occur in any age group and is not restricted to elderly populations. Today, the average age of the first-time stroke patient continues to decrease. However,

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 37, Issue 1, Page 1-13, January 1, 2020.

In this issue of Neuron, Fossati et al. (2019) report a new constellation of players regulating inhibitory synaptogenesis. They show that GluD1, through a non-canonical ionotropic-independent mechanism, controls GABAergic synapse formation via trans-synaptic interactions mediated by extracellular cerebellin-4. They identify ARHGEF12

Centenary of key narratives in clinical neuroscience Welcome to 2020—a year in which the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry reaches its century. It would be interesting to jump into the time machine, to turn back the clock to 1920

On Oct 15, 2019, the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative was launched, with Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman as scientific director. ASAP has the ambitious goal of using its generous philanthropic resources to fund basic research projects to uncover how

Migraine is a chronic disease characterized by episodic attacks of headache, sensitivity to light and sound, and nausea. The major classes of medications for acute migraine treatment are analgesics, including nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, ergots, and triptans. Triptans have been the

To the Editor: Studies in animals have shown that exposure to environmental monotony and social isolation have deleterious effects on the brain, particularly in reducing the generation of new neurons in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Whether stressors associated

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 24, Page 3317-3322, December 15, 2019.

The (GGGGCC)n repeat expansion in C9orf72, which is the most common cause of frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is translated through repeat-associated non-AUG (RAN) translation. In this issue of Neuron, Cheng et al. (2019) report that the helicase DDX3X, which

Status epilepticus is a medical emergency characterized either by continued seizures or by a lack of full recovery between seizures. It is relatively common, with a reported annual incidence of between 10 and 41 cases per 100,000 population (the variation

Evidence supports the use of benzodiazepines as the initial treatment for status epilepticus; however, seizures do not respond to benzodiazepines in up to a third of patients. The treatment for this type of benzodiazepine-refractory status epilepticus has not been well

Status epilepticus is a medical emergency characterized either by continued seizures or by a lack of full recovery between seizures. It is relatively common, with a reported annual incidence of between 10 and 41 cases per 100,000 population (the variation

The worm Caenorhabditis elegans is a simple yet powerful model organism that is useful in carrying out rapid genomewide genetic screens. There, high-throughput functional tests are designed to detect specific phenotypic (e.g. behavioral) deficits after the knockout of thousands of

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 23, Page 3191-3219, December 1, 2019.

Humans have always lived in intimate association with arthropods that transmit pathogens between humans or from animals to humans. About 700,000 deaths due to vectorborne diseases occur globally each year, according to World Health Organization estimates. In the summer and

The worm Caenorhabditis elegans is a simple yet powerful model organism that is useful in carrying out rapid genomewide genetic screens. There, high-throughput functional tests are designed to detect specific phenotypic (e.g. behavioral) deficits after the knockout of thousands of

The criticality hypothesis predicts that cortex operates near a critical point for optimum information processing. In this issue of Neuron, Ma et al. (2019) find evidence consistent with a mechanism that tunes cortex to criticality, even in the face of a

Intensive therapy to lower serum lipid levels with the use of statins is recommended after transient ischemic attack (TIA) or ischemic stroke of atherosclerotic origin. These recommendations are based on the results of the Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in

Despite improved management, overall survival rates at hospital discharge among patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrests do not exceed 20%, and neurologic outcomes remain poor. Even though controversies persist, targeted temperature management at 32 to 36°C remains recommended in patients with…

Traditions are an important part of Christmas (and this is your Christmas edition). There is a tradition (of which we at Practical Neurology thoroughly approve) that all talks, and most articles, on dizziness and vertigo should start with a quotation

Introduction Neurosarcoidosis is a great mimicker and distinction from multiple sclerosis can be troublesome. This study characterises a cohort of neurosarcoidosis patients with focus on CSF analysis and whether this could help distinguish these two conditions. Methods We enrolled 80

Concerns have been raised about the risk of several neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), associated with participation in contact sports. Recognition of the pathologic changes of CTE in former players who…

Accumulation of abnormal Tau is a characteristic feature of a number of neurodegenerative disorders, called tauopathies. What is the reason for Tau toxicity in neuronal cells? In this issue of Neuron, Sohn et al. (2019) found that FTD mutant Tau-V337M blocks

Although neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second cause of deaths worldwide, access to affordable drugs to treat neurological patients is appallingly low in most countries. To guide countries in their national drug policies, WHO has

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 22, Page 3063-3091, November 15, 2019.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric syndrome characterized by psychotic symptoms of hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized speech, by negative symptoms such as decreased motivation and diminished expressiveness, and by cognitive deficits involving impaired executive functions, memory, and speed of…

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 21, Page 2943-2963, November 1, 2019.

Rare diseases in aggregate affect approximately 30 million persons in the United States alone. Although next-generation sequencing is revolutionizing their diagnosis, the sheer number of distinct conditions (more than 7000 [https://globalgenes.org/rare-list]) and the limited number of patients…

In this issue of Neuron, Garcia-Marques et al. (2019) describe a new set of elegant tools based on the single strand annealing DNA repair system and CRISPR technology that provide many avenues for genetic and cellular manipulations.

Concerns have been raised about the risk of several neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), associated with participation in contact sports. Recognition of the pathologic changes of CTE in former players who…

Presentation of Case. Dr. Kun-Wei Song (Neurology): A 70-year-old woman was admitted to this hospital because of rapidly progressive ataxia. The patient had been in her usual state of good health until 3 months before this admission, when fatigue and

Presentation of Case. Dr. Elinor L. Baron: A 45-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis, seronegative inflammatory polyarthritis, and migraine was admitted to this hospital during the winter because of lethargy and decreased verbal output. The patient had been in her usual

Understanding the pathophysiology of diseases with complex genetic inheritance patterns is challenging. Macular telangiectasia type 2, which has a prevalence of 0.0045% to 0.06%, is a rare macular disease that leads to loss of central vision, with the onset of

Presentation of Case. Dr. Elinor L. Baron: A 45-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis, seronegative inflammatory polyarthritis, and migraine was admitted to this hospital during the winter because of lethargy and decreased verbal output. The patient had been in her usual

Understanding the pathophysiology of diseases with complex genetic inheritance patterns is challenging. Macular telangiectasia type 2, which has a prevalence of 0.0045% to 0.06%, is a rare macular disease that leads to loss of central vision, with the onset of

Olsson T, Boster A, Fernández Ó, et al. Oral ponesimod in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis: a randomised phase II trial. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2014;85:1198–1208. For Figure 3 (A), the 95% CI values provided for the 3 Ponesimod groups below each

Neuroscience needs behavior. This is the powerful title of a seminal review article by Krakauer et al. that Neuron published in 2017. As argued by the authors, identifying the neural basis of behavior requires the understanding of the behavior itself prior

The importance of patients’ perspectives on their disease status and quality of life is well recognised as an essential part of research studies and neurological practice. How best to incorporate patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in clinical studies and, eventually, into clinical

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 20, Page 2831-2849, October 15, 2019.

Neurosyphilis, the clinical result of infection of the nervous system by Treponema pallidum, preoccupied the fields of neurology and psychiatry for two centuries. The disease was ubiquitous, and practitioners recognized it from the slightest clinical manifestations. There has been a

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 19, Page 2743-2752, October 1, 2019.

When neurologists of a certain age get together, they often end up discussing the vexed but unresolvable question of ‘What has been the greatest development in neurology in our lifetime?’ (oh yes, you know you do). Clearly this depends on

Spinal cord injury causes permanent paralysis due to the inability of neurons in the central nervous system to regenerate transected axons. In this issue of Neuron, Tedeschi et al. (2019) report that axonal regrowth can be stimulated by actin-depolymerizing proteins, at

Background Edaravone Dexborneol is a novel neuroprotective agent that comprised edaravone and (+)-borneol, a food additive with an anti-inflammatory effect in animal ischaemic stroke models. This study aims to assess the safety and efficacy of Edaravone Dexborneol compared with edaravone

Figure 1.

On World Stroke Day, which takes place on Oct 29, the World Stroke Organization (WSO) will launch probably their most ambitious campaign so far. Their Don’t be the one campaign is underpinned by WSO’s analysis that suggests the lifetime risk

To the Editor: Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016, and since then its use has skyrocketed. The doses of the active ingredients of marijuana — tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) — are not standardized, product concentrations are not regulated, and

The thalamus serves various functions, but it primarily acts as a relay that receives sensory information and sends it to the cerebral cortex. In fact, inputs from the retina are sent to the lateral geniculate nucleus, which projects to the

Major depressive disorder is a serious mental health condition that affects up to 16% of people in the United States during their lifetimes and about 7% of the U.S. population in a given year. In addition, patients with major depressive

Antidepressants that primarily enhance monoaminergic neurotransmission involving serotonin or norepinephrine are used in the treatment of major depressive disorder, and their clinical effects are generally evident in 4 to 8 weeks. One hypothesis for the mechanism of depression implicates deficits…

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 18, Page 2609-2617, September 15, 2019.

Major depressive disorder is a serious mental health condition that affects up to 16% of people in the United States during their lifetimes and about 7% of the U.S. population in a given year. In addition, patients with major depressive

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 17, Page 2469-2483, September 1, 2019.

TREM2 and CD33 are microglial receptors associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk. In this issue of Neuron, Griciuc et al. (2019) demonstrate opposing effects of CD33 and TREM2 on AD phenotypes, where CD33 deletion promotes neuroprotection in a manner dependent on

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative movement disorder; however, peripheral symptoms can arise decades prior. In this issue of Neuron, Kim et al. (2019) provide evidence that progressive α-synuclein aggregation initiating in the gut could be a pathogenic epicenter anatomically rippling throughout

Neurons dying after brain injury cannot be replaced. Mattugini, Bocchi, et al. show that local astrocytes can be converted into functional neurons acquiring appropriate layer identity and connectivity by expression of neurogenic factors in a mouse model of traumatic brain injury.

Presentation of Case. Dr. Hung M. Le (Pediatrics): A 16-year-old girl was seen in the sports concussion clinic at this hospital because of headache, dizziness, balance problems, fatigue, irritability, and difficulties with sleep and concentration after she had head trauma

Fréal et al. report the molecular mechanisms involved in axon initial segment (AIS) assembly. This study describes in detail how feedback-driven coupling between AIS membrane proteins and axonal microtubules allows for the formation and maintenance of a functional AIS.

A mutation in ADRB1 was found in humans who sleep fewer hours than most. Using mouse modeling and calcium imaging experiments, Shi et al. demonstrate that dorsal pons ADRB1+ neuron activity is increased in the mutant, correlating with increased wakefulness.

What drives behavioral persistence versus quitting? Sayin et al. propose that circuit modules in the fly’s learning center and dopamine drive gradually increasing food odor tracking, which can be efficiently suppressed by extrinsic, but directly innervating, feeding-related neuromodulatory neurons.

Yu et al. measured the firing patterns of three major types of GABAergic inhibitory interneurons in the somatosensory cortex of mice during active tactile sensation. These cell types are recruited with distinct millisecond-scale dynamics, revealing cell-type-specific interactions and functions.

Kearney et al. used behavioral and optogenetic methods in singing birds to distinguish neural pathways that evaluate song performance from downstream premotor circuits that are guided by these evaluations to learn new vocal behaviors.

To the Editor: In a randomized trial involving 42 patients, we assessed deep brain stimulation targeting the fornix to improve cognition in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01608061; the protocol for the trial is available with the published article).

Hemberger et al. examine the actions of single neurons on surrounding networks in reptilian cortex. Cortical pyramidal neurons can initiate neuronal sequences reminiscent of hypothesized “synfire chains,” suggesting the existence of a landscape of preferred paths for cortical information flow.

Tian, Gachechiladze, and Ludwig et al. present a CRISPR interference-based platform for genetic screens in human iPSC-derived neurons. This platform enables systematic elucidation of gene function in human neurons and reveals neuron-specific roles of genes for survival, transcriptomics states, and morphology.

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an autoimmune, inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system that has a prevalence of 0.5 to 10 persons (predominantly women) per 100,000 population. It is characterized mainly by recurrent optic neuritis and myelitis, and

An electrophysiological and biopsy study of 106 patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy identifies differences between disease subtypes Chronic inflammatory neuropathies include multifocal motor neuropathy, which is purely motor and often associated with complement-fixing antibodies to ganglioside GM1, paraproteinaemic demyelinating

Conventional antidepressants have limited efficacy and many side effects, highlighting the need for fast-acting and specific medications. Holz et al. utilize cell-membrane-permeable TAT-fused peptides, which specifically modulate glutamatergic neurotransmission, as a novel strategy for rapid and effective antidepressant treatment.

Kwart and Gregg et al. generated a comprehensive panel of isogenic autosomal dominant familial Alzheimer’s disease (fAD) mutant human iPSCs. Differentiated neurons demonstrated common alterations in early endosomes mediated by accumulation of β-CTF, not Aβ.

Mayrhofer et al. map the location of mouse tongue-jaw motor cortex, finding that its neuronal activity encodes licking direction and is necessary for contralateral goal-directed licking but does not encode which sensory cue initiates licking, in contrast to sensory cortex.

You can’t walk into a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) anywhere in the world without being viscerally struck by sights, smells, and sounds that can easily overwhelm the uninitiated. Every child in a PICU is attached to various monitors that

Tedeschi et al. identify ADF/cofilin as a key driver of axon regeneration in adult dorsal root ganglion neurons. Specifically, enhanced actin turnover by the ADF/cofilin severing function controls axon regeneration in the adult CNS.

Neurological researchers are not typically known as ardent activists, and might be viewed to prefer quiet labs or busy clinical centres rather than the spotlight of the press and social media. But the stereotypes are being challenged. The Director of

Nigam et al. show that synergistic interactions represent an integral part of cortical computations in laminar circuits during wakefulness. Synergistic interactions allow columnar neural populations to efficiently encode sensory information even when receptive fields overlap and shared noise between cells is

To the Editor: Superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) is a ubiquitously expressed antioxidant enzyme. Mutations in SOD1 are associated with dominantly inherited amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, probably caused by the toxic effects of the protein rather than by loss of enzymatic activity. Here

Cell-specific gene modification is immensely crucial for basic biology as well as to deliver precise gene therapy. Garcia-Marques et al. present a breakthrough technology to genetically access specific cell types based on the expression of a precise combination of genes.

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 16, Page 2377-2384, August 15, 2019.

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 15, Page 2279-2286, August 1, 2019.

Gene therapy has provided treatment options for diseases that are beyond the reach of traditional approaches. Since 2016, between the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), six gene therapy products have been approved: two

Andrusiak et al. identify liquid-like granules of TIAR-2 as inhibitory for axon regeneration. Serine and tyrosine residues within the prion-like domain are essential for granule formation and function. This study provides a functional in vivo readout for a phase-separated compartment.

To the Editor: Superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) is a ubiquitously expressed antioxidant enzyme. Mutations in SOD1 are associated with dominantly inherited amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, probably caused by the toxic effects of the protein rather than by loss of enzymatic activity. Here

Haesemeyer et al. train convolutional neural networks to navigate temperature gradients to reveal shared representations and processing in artificial and biological networks. Constrained by zebrafish behavior, artificial networks critically rely on fish-like units and make testable predictions about the brain.

Hasselmann, Coburn, et al. validate a new xenotransplantation paradigm to study iPSC-derived human microglia in vivo. This chimeric approach rectifies many of the deficits observed in culture models, providing new insight into the functional and transcriptional responses of human microglia to inflammatory

Ren et al. identify presynaptic neurons innervating individual excitatory neuron clones that constitute microcircuits in the sensory cortex and reveal that input neurons in the frontal cortex are organized in discrete vertical clusters and preferentially form synapses with each other.

Bonnefont et al. show that Bcl6 promotes neurogenesis by directly repressing genes belonging to the major signaling pathways promoting cortical progenitor self-renewal. These data indicate that a single cell-intrinsic factor represses multiple extrinsic signaling pathways to ensure irreversible neurogenic commitment.

Sensory stimuli and behavioral reinforcement can be separated by long silent intervals. Guo et al. characterize a distributed neural circuit in the mouse forebrain that supports auditory fear learning by linking brief sounds with aversive events that occur many seconds later.

The world’s climate crisis has spared no one. Science tells us that the harms of climate change will worsen with time if we fail to take substantial actions now to reduce carbon pollution. In the United States, the growing burden

A steady protein supply is critical to synaptic function. Here, Fonkeu et al. present a theoretical framework, validated by experimental data, that details how local and dendritic mRNAs shape dendritic protein dynamics across short and long timescales.

Hierarchical movement sequences are often assumed to mirror an anatomical hierarchy of brain regions. Using representational fMRI analysis, Yokoi and Diedrichsen challenge this common assumption. Although the primary motor cortex represents elementary movements, chunk and sequence representations coexist in the

Gamma oscillations are hypothesized to temporally coordinate sensory encoding. Shin and Moore found a distinct subtype of fast spiking interneurons (FS) in SI that are nonsensory responsive and spike regularly at gamma intervals. These “gamma regular nonsensory FS” could potentially

Presentation of Case. Dr. Doll L. Golden (Medicine): A 65-year-old woman was admitted to this hospital because of falls, weakness, dark urine, and difficulty swallowing. Approximately 35 years before the current admission, the patient underwent staged male-to-female sex reassignment surgery

To the Editor: Superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) is a ubiquitously expressed antioxidant enzyme. Mutations in SOD1 are associated with dominantly inherited amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, probably caused by the toxic effects of the protein rather than by loss of enzymatic activity. Here

Pan et al. identify a microcircuit in the dorsal spinal cord that transmit mechanically evoked itch. Sensitization of this pathway is required for chronic itch development.

Sohn et al. found that prior beliefs warp neural representations in the frontal cortex. This warping provides a substrate for the optimal integration of prior beliefs with sensory evidence during sensorimotor behavior.

An extensive single-cell catalog of cell types in the mid-gestation human neocortex extends our understanding of early cortical development, including subplate neuron transcriptomes, cell-type-specific regulatory networks, brain evolution, and the cellular basis of neuropsychiatric disease.

Presentation of Case. Dr. Priya Srikanth (Neurology): A 31-year-old woman was evaluated in the emergency department of this hospital because of vision loss. Three weeks before presentation, blurry vision in the left eye developed gradually, with perception of distant objects

Neurologists are keen to remind their trainees that ‘it’s all in the history’. An illness’s time course is a particularly important part of the history, providing the time signature for the underlying pathological process and thus significantly narrowing the differential

Have we found the ‘dynamic lesion’ of Jean-Martin Charcot in functional neurological disorders? At the end of the 19th century, hysterical symptoms were regarded by one of the founders of modern neurology, Jean-Martin Charcot, as manifestations of a ‘dynamic lesion’

Microglial receptors CD33 and TREM2 exhibit opposite effects on Aβ pathology and microglial activity in AD mice. In crosstalk between these receptors, TREM2 is required for differential gene expression in 5xFAD mice deficient for CD33 and acts downstream of CD33.

The most common inherited cause of intellectual and developmental disability worldwide is fragile X syndrome, caused by a mutation in the FMR1 gene on the X chromosome. To accelerate the development of effective interventions to prevent or treat fragile X

Xu et al. show that in the Drosophila visual system, DIP IgSF proteins are not necessary for synaptogenesis but regulate synaptic specificity by promoting synapses to form between specific cell types.

Xin et al. studied the computational mechanism for transforming sensory information into meaningful categories in the auditory cortex using two-photon imaging. Cortical neurons are dynamically recruited to enhance discrimination for stimuli near decision boundaries. Categorical decisions can be accurately decoded from

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 14, Page 2153-2166, July 15, 2019.

Flexible behavior requires a memory of previous interactions with the environment. The medial prefrontal cortex persistently represents value-based decision variables, bridging the time between choices. These decision variables are sent to the dorsomedial striatum to bias action selection.

Foreword. In this Journal feature, information about a real patient is presented in stages (boldface type) to an expert clinician, who responds to the information by sharing relevant background and reasoning with the reader (regular type). The authors’ commentary follows.

How does the brain process natural versus drug rewards? Alhadeff et al. demonstrate that food and drugs signal from the periphery to the hypothalamus via distinct pathways. Furthermore, bidirectional and coordinated interactions between hypothalamic and dopamine circuits potentiate responses to rewards.

Using high-content screening, we identified a class of planar small molecules that can (1) modulate the dynamics of neurodegeneration-linked stress granules (SGs), (2) reduce SG association of ALS-linked RNA-binding proteins, and (3) prevent accumulation of TDP-43 within persistent cytoplasmic puncta.

Journal of Neurotrauma, Volume 36, Issue 13, Page 2053-2064, July 1, 2019.

Non-canonical Wnt signaling through the Ryk receptor establishes regional subdomains within the MGE along the rostral-caudal axis. These subdomains are defined by graded Ryk signaling, which regulates the proportions of parvalbumin and somatostatin cortical interneurons produced during development.

Sedation is a component of the care of critically ill patients who are undergoing mechanical ventilation, but the appropriate choice of a primary sedative agent remains uncertain. Propofol and midazolam, which act mainly through pathways mediated by γ-aminobutyric acid, are

Here, Bray et al. used a variety of transgenic mice to demonstrate high survival and regenerative ability of one neuronal type in the retina and show several factors within these neurons, including thrombospondin-1 and syndecan-1 that confer high regenerative capacity.

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) plays a critical role in guiding decisions in dynamic environments. Groman et al. use a directionally specific viral ablation approach to demonstrate that OFC circuits encode separable reinforcement-learning processes that guide decisions.

Zheng et al. defined distinct intrinsic physiological properties and transcriptome profiles of eight somatosensory neuron subtypes and further revealed subtype-specific contributions of differentially expressed potassium channels to the intrinsic membrane properties in these sensory neurons.

Haploinsufficiency in the gene SCN2A, which encodes the sodium channel NaV1.2, has strong autism association. Spratt et al. show that Scn2a contributes to dendritic excitability in mature neocortical pyramidal cells, where its loss impairs excitatory synaptic function and plasticity.

Rhoades et al. find the smooth monostratified retinal ganglion cells in the primate retina have unusual receptive fields consisting of multiple hotspots. This differs from classic center-surround receptive field models and suggests a role in nonlinear visual computation.

Reward outcomes depend on the stimulation protocol used to activate nucleus accumbens medium spiny neuron (MSN) subtypes. In this issue of Neuron, Francis et al. demonstrate rebalanced MSN subtype excitation driven by high-frequency stimulation and substance P release.

Sengupta and Holmes use in vivo imaging, optogenetic, electrophysiological, and histological approaches to investigate the circuit-specific role of the DRN→BA 5-HT pathway in fear learning. They show this pathway is uniquely positioned, functionally and anatomically, to shape fear memory.