Background: About 20%of patients with familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) deve lop progressive cerebellar signs. Genetic studies have established an associatio n with mutations in the CACNA1A gene. However, the mechani...
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Background: About 20%of patients with familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) deve lop progressive cerebellar signs. Genetic studies have established an associatio n with mutations in the CACNA1A gene. However, the mechanisms underlying cerebel lar involvement are largely unknown. Objective: To use proton MR spectroscopy (1 H-MRs) to investigate metabolic alterations in the cerebellum as well as cortic al regions known to be involved in the propagation of migraine aura. Methods:Fif teen CACNA1A mutation carriers from three FHM families and 17 healthy control su bjects were studied. Eleven patients had clinical signs of cerebellar involvemen t. LCModel fits were used to estimate absolute concentrations of N-acetylaspart ate (NAA), myo-inositol (ml), glutamate (Glu), choline containing compounds, to tal creatine, and lactate in the superior cerebellar vermis (sCV), parietal cort ex, and occipital *** control for atrophy effects, automated image segment ation was performed using sPM99. The brain parenchyma fraction(BPF) was determin ed for all three regions. Results: Compared with controls, the brain parenchyma fraction (BPF), NAA,and Glu were significantly reduced and mI was significantly elevated in the sCV of patients with FHM. In contrast, no metabolite alterations were found in supratentorial regions. BPF and NAA in the sCV significantly corr elated with cerebellar scores, in particular, gait ataxia. Conclusions: The find ings suggest that there is a regionally distinct neuronal impairment in the superio r cerebellar vermis that exceeds macroscopic tissue loss. Correlations with clin ical scores emphasize the functional relevance of localized atrophy (brain paren chyma fraction) and N-acetyl aspartate levels. These measures may be useful to monitor disease progression. The observed reductionin glutamate may in part refl ect impaired glutamatergic neurotransmission.
In sensory substitution, information acquired with one sensory modality is use d to accomplish a task which is normally subserved primarily by another sensory modality. We used PET to study cross-modal plasticity in t...
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In sensory substitution, information acquired with one sensory modality is use d to accomplish a task which is normally subserved primarily by another sensory modality. We used PET to study cross-modal plasticity in the congenitally blind , using electrotactile stimulation of the tongue. Blind (n=6) and sighted blindfolded controls (n=5) were scanned before and after they were trained to use their tongue in a snellen orientation detect ion task. Results showed that both groups of subjects learned the discrimination orientation task after seven 1 h training sessions. Before training, no signifi cant changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) were observed in the occipit al cortex in either group. In sharp contrast, activity in the occipital cortex i ncreased after practice for the blind, but not for the sighted, providing eviden ce for training-induced plasticity in the blind. An inter-regional correlation analysis showed that task-related rCBF changes in left posterior parietal cort ex were positively correlated with rCBF changes in the occipital area of the tra ined blind. These data reveal that cross-modal plasticity in the blind develops rapidly and that the occipital cortex is part of a functional neural network fo r tactile discrimination in conjunction with the posterior parietal cortex. Our data further show that the tongue can act as a portal to convey somatosensory in formation to visual cortex.
In this prospective double blind randomised “ N of 1” study, a patient wit h a severe form of Tourette’ ssyndrome was treated with bilateral high frequen cy stimulation of the centromedianparafascicular complex (C...
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In this prospective double blind randomised “ N of 1” study, a patient wit h a severe form of Tourette’ s syndrome was treated with bilateral high frequen cy stimulation of the centromedianparafascicular complex (Ce- Pf) of the thalam us, the internal part of the globus pallidus (GPi), or both. stimulation of eith er target improved tic severity by 70% , markedly ameliorated coprolalia, and e liminated self injuries. severe forms of Tourette’ s syndrome may benefit from stimulation of neuronal circuits within the basal ganglia, thus confirming the r ole of the dysfunction of limbic striatopallido- thalamo- cort- ical systems in this disorder.
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