The "One Health" approach in the face of Covid-19: how radical should it be?

Background: The 2020-2021 coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is just the latest epidemic event that requires us to rethink and change our understanding of health. Health should no longer be conceived only in relation to human beings, but in unitary terms, as a dimension that connects humans, animals, plants, and the environment (holistic view, One Health). In general, alterations occurring in this articulated chain of life trigger a domino effect.

Camillo Negro (1861-1927) and Antonio Carle (1854-1927): Pioneers of non-resective surgical approach to epilepsy treatment.

Epilepsy surgery developed following the clinical and experimental demonstration of the existence of the primary motor cortex in animals and humans. The first epilepsy surgery procedures were mainly performed to treat focal motor (Jacksonian) epilepsy, as the seizure semiology precisely pointed to the contralateral motor cortex (epileptogenic zone), guiding the surgical removal of the visible lesion found in that region. However, mainly in the absence of any visible alteration of brain tissue, the removal of the portion of the cortex supposed to be responsible for the seizures carried the risk of injuring healthy areas of the brain, often resulting in permanent neurological deficits.

Are we Ready for a "Microbiome-Guided Behaviour" Approach?

The microbiome is proving to be increasingly important for human brain functioning. A series of recent studies have shown that the microbiome influences the central nervous system in various ways, and consequently acts on the psychological well-being of the individual by mediating, among others, the reactions of stress and anxiety. From a specifically neuroethical point of view, according to some scholars, the particular composition of the microbiome-qua microbial community-can have consequences on the traditional idea of human individuality.

Neurological implications and neuropsychological considerations on folk music and dance.

Neurological and neuropsychological aspects of folk music and traditional dance have been poorly investigated by historical and scientific literature. Some of these performances could be indeed the manifestation of latent pathological conditions or the expression of liberation rituals. This chapter aimed at analyzing the relationships between traditional dance, folk music, and neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Somnambulism in Verdi's Macbeth and Bellini's La Sonnambula: opera, sleepwalking, and medicine.

The arts can provide unique ways for determining how people not directly involved in medicine were viewing and informing others about physical and mental disorders. With operas, one need only think about how various perturbations of madness have been portrayed. Somnambulism has long been a particularly perplexing disorder, both to physicians and the laity, and it features in a number of operas.

Torvis oculis: occupational roots of behavioral neurotoxicology in the last two centuries and beyond.

Behavioral toxicology is an important discipline of toxicology that traces its roots back to the origin of psychology. A parallel development can be traced for behavioral toxicology and psychology, in that both were focused on the mind or behavior, as distinct from neurology, that recognized the brain as the ultimate target. Ancient physicians and non-medical authors incidentally described the effects of neurotoxic agents on mood.

[The eclecticism in Bernardino Ramazzini: the analysis of non-medical sources of "De Morbis Artificum Diatriba"].

Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714), the founder of occupational medicine, can be considered an eclectic author since his works ranged from physics to geology, from epidemiology to poetry. An analysis of his most famous book De Morbis Artificum Diatriba shows that about half of the authors cited by Ramazzini are not medical. In particular, "non medical" authors most cited are poets, comic playwrights, philosophers and satirists.

Origin and evolution of deep brain stimulation.

This paper briefly describes how the electrical stimulation, used since antiquity to modulate the nervous system, has been a fundamental tool of neurophysiologic investigation in the second half of the eighteenth century and was subsequently used by the early twentieth century, even for therapeutic purposes. In mid-twentieth century the advent of stereotactic procedures has allowed the drift from lesional to stimulating technique of deep nuclei of the brain for therapeutic purposes. In this way, deep brain stimulation (DBS) was born, that, over the last two decades, has led to positive results for the treatment of medically refractory Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and dystonia.

Sleepwalking in Italian operas: a window on popular and scientific knowledge on sleep disorders in the 19th century.

There is little knowledge on sleepwalking in ancient times even though it is a very common condition. The aim of this report is to describe the backgrounds of medical knowledge on somnambulism in the 19th century, a key period in the development of neurosciences, by analysing its representation in two famous Italian operas: La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini and Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi. The 19th-century operas may be considered as a crossing point between the popular and intellectual world because they mirror popular answers to phenomena that were still awaiting scientific explanations.