The lateralized smell test for detecting Alzheimer's disease: failure to replicate.

Objectives: A widely publicized study by Stamps, Bartoshuk and Heilman (2013) reported that a simple measure of left:right naris differences in the ability to detect the odor of peanut butter is a sensitive marker of Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD patients were said to have abnormal smell function on the left side of the nose and normal function on right side of the nose. In light of its implications for medical practice and the world-wide publicity that it engendered, we sought to replicate and expand this work.

[Present and future of the transcranial magnetic stimulation].

Magnetic stimulation has called the attention of neuroscientists and the public due to the possibility to stimulate and "control" the nervous system in a non-invasive way. It has helped to make more accurate diagnosis, and apply more effective treatments and rehabilitation protocols in several diseases that affect the nervous system. Likewise, this novel tool has increased our knowledge about complex neural behavior, its connections as well as its plastic modulation.

Novel mechanisms underlying inhibitory and facilitatory transcranial magnetic stimulation abnormalities in Parkinson's disease.

Background And Aims: The motor-evoked potential (MEP) induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), its recruitment and the conditioning effects of weak stimuli in Parkinson's disease (PD) have shown contradictory results. The aim of this study is to definitively establish the influences of PD on the TMS-evoked MEP.

Methods: We investigated resting and active motor thresholds, resting and active recruitment curves, and short interval intracortical inhibition (ICI) and facilitation (ICF) in 39 PD patients and 40 age-matched healthy controls.

Profound olfactory dysfunction in myasthenia gravis.

In this study we demonstrate that myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease strongly identified with deficient acetylcholine receptor transmission at the post-synaptic neuromuscular junction, is accompanied by a profound loss of olfactory function. Twenty-seven MG patients, 27 matched healthy controls, and 11 patients with polymiositis, a disease with peripheral neuromuscular symptoms analogous to myasthenia gravis with no known central nervous system involvement, were tested. All were administered the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) and the Picture Identification Test (PIT), a test analogous in content and form to the UPSIT designed to control for non-olfactory cognitive confounds.

WITHDRAWN: Mechanisms Underlying Inhibitory and Facilitatory Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Abnormalities in a Large Sample of Patients with Parkinson's Disease.

This article has been withdrawn at the request of the author(s) and/or editor. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at http://www.

[Magnetoreception: the angular stone in aerospace orientation, human balance and locomotion].

Current research is in agreement with the presence of a magnetic compass in living beings including humans. The two most accepted explanations that demonstrate the existence of magnetoreceptors in living beings are, the radical pair and the biogenic magnetite, which are discussed here with its respective experimental evidence and support. It indicates the presence of magnetite crystals in otoliths, among different inferior species of animals.