Altered praxis network underlying limb kinetic apraxia in Parkinson's disease - an fMRI study.

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients frequently suffer from dexterous deficits impeding activities of daily living. There is controversy whether impaired fine motor skill may stem from limb kinetic apraxia (LKA) rather than bradykinesia. Based on classical models of limb praxis LKA is thought to result when premotor transmission of time-space information of skilled movements to primary motor representations is interrupted.

Theta burst stimulation over premotor cortex in Parkinson's disease: an explorative study on manual dexterity.

Dorsal pre-motor cortex (PMd) is thought to play a role in fine motor control. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether inhibitory or excitatory stimulation of PMd would have an impact on manual dexterity in Parkinson's disease (PD). Fifteen patients with PD participated in this study.

Different visual exploration of tool-related gestures in left hemisphere brain damaged patients is associated with poor gestural imitation.

According to the direct matching hypothesis, perceived movements automatically activate existing motor components through matching of the perceived gesture and its execution. The aim of the present study was to test the direct matching hypothesis by assessing whether visual exploration behavior correlate with deficits in gestural imitation in left hemisphere damaged (LHD) patients. Eighteen LHD patients and twenty healthy control subjects took part in the study.

Viral escape in the CNS with multidrug-resistant HIV-1.

Introduction: HIV-1 viral escape in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) despite viral suppression in plasma is rare [1,2]. We describe the case of a 50-year-old HIV-1 infected patient who was diagnosed with HIV-1 in 1995. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was started in 1998 with a CD4 T cell count of 71 cells/ìL and HIV-viremia of 46,000 copies/mL.

Left posterior parietal theta burst stimulation affects gestural imitation regardless of semantic content.

Objective: Neuro-imaging studies have suggested that the ability to imitate meaningless and meaningful gestures may differentially depend on superior (SPL) and inferior (IPL) parietal lobule. Therefore, we hypothesized that imaging-guided neuro-navigated continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over left SPL mainly affects meaningless and over left IPL predominantly meaningful gestures.

Methods: Twelve healthy subjects participated in this study.

Theta burst stimulation reduces disability during the activities of daily living in spatial neglect.

Left-sided spatial neglect is a common neurological syndrome following right-hemispheric stroke. The presence of spatial neglect is a powerful predictor of poor rehabilitation outcome. In one influential account of spatial neglect, interhemispheric inhibition is impaired and leads to a pathological hyperactivity in the contralesional hemisphere, resulting in a biased attentional allocation towards the right hemifield.

Interference with gesture production by theta burst stimulation over left inferior frontal cortex.

Objective: The traditional view of a predominant inferior parietal representation of gestures has been recently challenged by neuroimaging studies demonstrating that gesture production and discrimination may critically depend on inferior frontal lobe function. The aim of the present work was therefore to investigate the effect of transient disruption of these brain sites by continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) on gesture production and recognition.

Methods: Fourteen healthy subjects participated in the study.

A randomized trial for the treatment of refractory status epilepticus.

Background: Refractory status epilepticus (RSE) has a mortality of 16-39%; coma induction is advocated for its management, but no comparative study has been performed. We aimed to assess the effectiveness (RSE control, adverse events) of the first course of propofol versus barbiturates in the treatment of RSE.

Methods: In this randomized, single blind, multi-center trial studying adults with RSE not due to cerebral anoxia, medications were titrated toward EEG burst-suppression for 36-48 h and then progressively weaned.