Optogenetic neuromodulation.

The recent development of optogenetics, a revolutionary research tool in neuroscience, portends an evolution of current clinical neuromodulation tools. A form of gene therapy, optogenetics makes possible highly precise spatial and temporal control of specific neuronal populations. This technique has already provided several new insights relevant to clinical neuroscience, from the physiological substrate of functional magnetic resonance imaging to the mechanism of deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease.

Venous thromboembolism after thoracic/thoracolumbar spinal fusion.

Objective: Venous thromboembolism (VTE), which includes deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, is a serious and potentially fatal surgical complication. The goal of our study was to examine preoperative characteristics, incidence, and outcomes of patients with VTE after elective thoracic/thoracolumbar level spine fusion.

Methods: We identified 430,081 patients from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database who underwent spinal fusion between 2002 and 2008.

Morbidity and mortality of C2 fractures in the elderly: surgery and conservative treatment.

Background: Closed C2 fractures commonly occur after falls or other trauma in the elderly and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Controversy exists as to best treatment practices for these patients.

Objective: To compare outcomes for elderly patients with closed C2 fractures by treatment modality.

Impact of age, injury severity score, and medical comorbidities on early complications after fusion and halo-vest immobilization for C2 fractures in older adults: a propensity score matched retrospective cohort study.

Study Design: Propensity score matched retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To report early complication rates and associated risk factors in patients with C2 fractures who underwent fusion or halo immobilization.

Summary Of Background Data: There is limited data on the impact of age, injury severity score, and medical comorbidities on overall complication rates from surgical fixation versus halo-vest immobilization of C2 fractures.

Decreased number of parvalbumin and cholinergic interneurons in the striatum of individuals with Tourette syndrome.

Corticobasal ganglia neuronal ensembles bring automatic motor skills into voluntary control and integrate them into ongoing motor behavior. A 5% decrease in caudate (Cd) nucleus volume is the most consistent structural finding in the brain of patients with Tourette syndrome (TS), but the cellular abnormalities that underlie this decrease in volume are unclear. In this study the density of different types of interneurons and medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the striatum was assessed in the postmortem brains of 5 TS subjects as compared with normal controls (NC) by unbiased stereological analyses.

Annotation: Tourette syndrome: a relentless drumbeat--driven by misguided brain oscillations.

Objective: This annotation reviews recent evidence that points to the likely role of aberrant neural oscillations in the pathogenesis of Tourette syndrome (TS).

Methods: The available anatomic and electrophysiological findings in TS are reviewed in the context of an emerging picture of the crucial role that neural oscillations play in maintaining normal central nervous system (CNS) function.

Results: Neurons form behavior-dependent oscillating networks of various sizes and frequencies that bias input selection and facilitate synaptic plasticity, mechanisms that cooperatively support temporal representation as well as the transfer and long-term consolidation of information.

Altered parvalbumin-positive neuron distribution in basal ganglia of individuals with Tourette syndrome.

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by motor and vocal tics. Imaging studies found alterations in caudate (Cd) and putamen volumes. To investigate possible alterations in cell populations, postmortem basal ganglia tissue from individuals with TS and normal controls was analyzed by using unbiased stereological techniques.