In the last decade, important advances in the field of cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience have largely contributed to improve our knowledge on brain functioning. More recently, a line of research has been developed that aims at using musical training and practice as alternative tools for boosting specific perceptual, motor, cognitive, and emotional skills both in healthy population...

ôbjective: previous studies reported that individuals with parkinson’s disease are less likely to have smoking history and it seems that nicotine has a neuroprotective effect. the authors have conducted a case-control retrospective study to determine if there is an association between cigarette smoking and parkinson’s disease. methods: ïn a matched case-control study, 92 individuals with parkin...

background & aim: parkinson's disease (pd) can be created with loss of dopaminergic substantial nigra neurons which is widely associated with oxidative stress and reduced glutathione (gsh), as the most important and abundant thiol in tissues and one of the antioxidant defense, is one of the earliest biochemical events related to parkinson's and consumption of antioxidants has a protective e...

BACKGROUND Pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) stimulation is a novel therapy for Parkinson disease. However, controversies remain regarding the clinical application of this new therapy, including patient selection, electrode positioning, and how best to assess outcomes. OBJECTIVE To clarify the clinical application of PPN stimulation in Parkinson disease. METHODS Five consecutive patients with ...

BACKGROUND The detection of hyperechogenicity of the substantia nigra using trans cranial sonography can be predictive of the diagnosis of Parkinson Disease. AIM To report an experience with transcranial sonography for the diagnosis of Parkinson disease. Material ana METHODS One hundred sixteen patients with movement disorders were subjected to a transcranial sonography to detect the presen...

The induction of ventricular tachycardia by ventricular stimulation was investigated in 46 patients with isolated Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (10 concealed) and 36 control patients with normal electrocardiograms and conduction systems. None of those studied had spontaneous ventricular arrhythmias or myocardial or valve disease. Single and double ventricular extrastimuli were delivered at 3 c...

In this Commentary, I describe the events that led from an NINDS-sponsored Workshop on Parkinson Disease Research in 1995, where I was asked to speak about the genetics of Parkinson disease, to the identification a mere two years later of a mutation in alpha-synuclein as the cause of autosomal dominant Parkinson disease in the Contursi kindred. I review the steps we took to first map and then f...

Essential tremor is one of the most frequent movement disorders of humans and can be associated with substantial disability. Some but not all persons with essential tremor develop signs of Parkinson disease, and the relationship between the conditions has not been clear. In a six-generation consanguineous Turkish kindred with both essential tremor and Parkinson disease, we carried out whole exo...

The diagnosis of Parkinson disease (PD) is rendered on the basis of clinical parameters, whereby laboratory chemical tests or morphological imaging is only called upon to exclude other neurodegenerative diseases. The differentiation between PD and other diseases of the basal ganglia, especially the postsynaptic Parkinson syndromes multisystem atrophy (MSA) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PS...