An anthropological study about headache and migraine in native cultures from Central and South America.

Objective: To describe the ritual and ethnobotanical treatments about migraine performed by shamans from several native cultures.

Methods: Anthropological field study conducted with Tzeltal Maya (Mexico), Kamayurá (Brazil), and Uru-Chipaya (Bolivia) American Indians.

Results: Migraine is called yaxti-wanjol chawaj by Tzeltal shamans.

An anthropological study about epilepsy in native tribes from Central and South America.

Purpose: Epilepsy was a well-recognized disease in pre-Columbian cultures. However, anthropological studies about epilepsy in native cultures living at the present time are scarce. The objective of this paper was to study native perception and myths about epilepsy, their magic-religious healing rites and ceremonies, and the natural treatments that archaic cultures used.

Lateralization of cerebral blood flow velocity changes during auditory stimulation: a functional transcranial Doppler study.

Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) permits the assessment of cognitively induced cerebral blood flow velocity (BFV) changes. We sought to investigate the lateralization of BFV acceleration induced by auditory stimulation and speech in a normal population. TCD monitoring of BFV in the middle cerebral arteries (MCA) was performed in 30 normal right-handed volunteers (average age = 31.

Unusual early-onset Huntingtons disease.

Huntington's disease is an autosomal dominant progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by involuntary movements, cognitive decline, and behavioral disorders leading to functional disability. In contrast to patients with adult onset, in which chorea is the major motor abnormality, children often present with spasticity, rigidity, and significant intellectual decline associated with a more rapidly progressive course. An unusual early-onset Huntington's disease case of an 11-year-old boy with severe hypokinetic/rigid syndrome appearing at the age of 2.