The TRPA1 Ion Channel Contributes to Sensory-Guided Avoidance of Menthol in Mice.

The flavoring agent menthol elicits complex orosensory and behavioral effects including perceived cooling at low concentrations and irritation and ingestive avoidance at higher intensities. Oral menthol engages the cold-activated transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channel TRP melastatin 8 (TRPM8) on trigeminal fibers, although its aversive feature was discussed to involve activation of TRP ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) associated with nociceptive processing. Here, we studied the roles of TRPM8 and TRPA1 in orosensory responding to menthol by subjecting mice gene deficient for either channel to brief-access exposure tests, which measure immediate licking responses to fluid stimuli to capture sensory/tongue control of behavior.

Neuropsychological and positron emission tomography correlates in idiopathic environmental intolerances.

Objectives: It has been hypothesized that people with subjective hypersensitivity to chemicals may indeed suffer from neuronal damage due to widely distributed environmental toxins and that such deficits of diagnostic importance can be demonstrated with the help of functional neuroimaging even in single cases. In this study, a small group of well-characterized patients with idiopathic environmental intolerance were examined in order to identify such changes.

Methods: Twelve patients with idiopathic environmental intolerance were investigated neuropsychologically and underwent cerebral F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) positron emission tomography (PET).

Tau and Abeta42 protein in CSF of patients with frontotemporal degeneration.

Background: CSF concentrations of tau and beta-amyloid protein-42 (Abeta42) have been extensively studied in AD. Few data are available concerning CSF levels of both proteins in patients with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD).

Methods: The authors investigated CSF tau and Abeta42 concentrations in 34 patients with FTD, 74 patients with AD, and 40 cognitively healthy control subjects.

[Brain stem and cerebellar atrophy in neurosyphilis].

A 54-year-old man suffered from serologically proven neurosyphilis with tetraspastic syndrome and bladder dysfunction. He showed a pronounced psychopathy with cognitive decline and attention/concentration deficits. MRI showed slowly progressive cerebellar and brainstem atrophy, which has rarely been described over the past decades.