Neurology Commons^™

Functional Recovery Of Untreated Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Associated Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A Case Report, Adam L. Schreiber, John W. Norbury Iii, Eduardo A. De Sousa

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine Faculty Papers

HIV-associated Guillain-Barré Syndrome is a well-documented phenomenon, typically occurring at seroconversion. GBS may result in functional impairment treated with a combination of medications, plasmapheresis, and rehabilitation. The quantified functional recovery of HIV-associated GBS with or without HIV treatment is not well-described. Utilizing serial FIM scoring, we describe a patient’s recovery from HIV-associated GBS after treatment with IVIg and acute inpatient rehabilitation without HIV treatment.

Deregulation Of Micrornas By Hiv-1 Vpr Protein Leads To The Development Of Neurocognitive Disorders, Ruma Mukerjee, J Robert Chang, Luis Del Valle, Asen Bagashev, Monika M. Gayed, Randolph B. Lyde, Brian J. Hawkins, Eugen Brailoiu, Eric Cohen, Chris Power, S Ausim Azizi, Benjamin B. Gelman, Bassel E. Sawaya

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Studies have shown that HIV-infected patients develop neurocognitive disorders characterized by neuronal dysfunction. The lack of productive infection of neurons by HIV suggests that viral and cellular proteins, with neurotoxic activities, released from HIV-1-infected target cells can cause this neuronal deregulation. The viral protein R (Vpr), a protein encoded by HIV-1, has been shown to alter the expression of various important cytokines and inflammatory proteins in infected and uninfected cells; however the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Using a human neuronal cell line, we found that Vpr can be taken up by neurons causing: (i) deregulation of calcium homeostasis, (ii) endoplasmic …

Strain-Dependent Variation In The Early Transcriptional Response To Cns Injury Using A Cortical Explant System, David J. Graber, Brent T. Harris, William F. Hickey

Dartmouth Scholarship

While it is clear that inbred strains of mice have variations in immunological responsiveness, the influence of genetic background following tissue damage in the central nervous system is not fully understood. A cortical explant system was employed as a model for injury to determine whether the immediate transcriptional response to tissue resection revealed differences among three mouse strains. Immunological mRNAs were measured in cerebral cortex from SJL/J, C57BL/6J, and BALB/cJ mice using real time RT-PCR. Freshly isolated cortical tissue and cortical sections incubated in explant medium were examined. Levels of mRNA, normalized to β-actin, were compared using one way analysis …

Brain Activation And Connectivity In Non-Disabled Multiple Sclerosis Patients, Rene A. Colorado

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelinating disease affecting the central nervous system. There is no cure for MS and current therapies have limited efficacy. While the majority of individuals with MS develop significant clinical disability, a subset experiences a disease course with minimal impairment even in the presence of significant apparent tissue damage on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The current studies combined functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to elucidate brain mechanisms associated with lack of clinical disability in patients with MS. Recent evidence has implicated cortical reorganization as a mechanism to limit the clinical manifestation of …

Acute Effects Of A Selective Cannabinoid-2 Receptor Agonist On Neuroinflammation In A Model Of Traumatic Brain Injury., Melanie B Elliott, Ronald F Tuma, Peter S Amenta, Mary F Barbe, Jack I Jallo

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

Proposed therapeutic strategies for attenuating secondary traumatic brain injury (TBI) include modulation of acute neuroimmune responses. The goal of this study was to examine the acute effects of cannabinoid-2 receptor (CB(2)R) modulation on behavioral deficits, cerebral edema, perivascular substance P, and macrophage/microglial activation in a murine model of TBI. Thirty male C57BL/6 mice underwent sham surgery, or cortical contusion impact injury (CCI). CCI mice received vehicle or the CB(2)R agonist 0-1966 at 1 and 24 h after injury. Performance on the rotarod, forelimb cylinder, and open-field tests were evaluated before and at 48 h after sham or CCI surgery. Cerebral …

Optimality In Neural Adaptation, Adrienne Fairhall

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Nervous systems tune themselves to the statistical structure of the stimuli they encounter. This sensitivity to statistics appears in phenomena ranging over many timescales, from the adaptation of vision to a rapid change in light level to the loss of ability to distinguish the sounds of non-native languages. While multiple neural mechanisms contribute to this on-line learning of stimulus distributions, we show that the intrinsic nonlinearities of single neurons provide them with the ability to represent time-varying stimuli optimally. While such sensitivity to stimulus statistics does not require learning, slower timescales of adaptation are consistent with optimal inference of statistical …

Learning From Mistakes: Improving Initial Fingertip Force Scaling By Observing Lifting Errors, Gavin Buckingham, Minnie Tang, Paul Gribble, Melvyn A. Goodale

Psychology Presentations

• When lifting objects that are lighter or heaver than we expect them to be, individuals typically misapply forces in a way that reflects their prior expectations of heaviness.

• Because we lift in this predictive way, large and small cubes elicit these characteristic errors even when they are adjusted to have equal mass. Lifters will apply too much force to a large cube and substantially less force to a small cube – errors that are rapidly corrected with repeated lifts (Flanagan & Beltzner, 2000).

• When watching others lift objects, an observer’s motor system automatically reacts in a way …

The Effect Of Spiritualism On The Neuropsychological Function Of Memory, Carla Farcello

McNair Poster Presentations

The amount of physiological-neurological research performed over the past few years has dramatically increased due to our ability to view the structure and function of the brain in living human beings. The use of imaging tools has resulted in huge strides forward in unlocking some of the mysteries of the 3 pound universe-the human brain. One of the more unique neural processes being recently addressed is the affect of belief and spiritualism-the sense of being connected to something larger than oneself-on the human brain. This study hypothesized that better memory will be documented among the experimental group who report being …

Associatioin Of Plasma Aβ Peptides With Blood Pressure In The Elderly, Jean-Charles Lambert, Jean Dallongeville, Kathryn A. Ellis, Susanna Schraen-Maschke, James Lui, Simon Laws, Julie Dumont, Florence Richard, Dominque Cottel, Claudine Berr, David Ames, Colin L. Masters, Christopher C. Rowe, Cassandra Szoeke, Christophe Tzourio, Jean-Francois Dartigues, Luc Buee, Ralph Martins, Philippe Amouyel

Research outputs 2011

Background Aß peptides are often considered as catabolic by-products of the amyloid ß protein precursor (APP), with unknown physiological functions. However, several biological properties have been tentatively attributed to these peptides, including a role in vasomotion. We assess whether plasma Aß peptide levels might be associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure values (SBP and DBP, respectively). Methodology/Principal Findings Plasma Aß1-40 and Aß1-42 levels were measured using an xMAP-based assay in 1,972 individuals (none of whom were taking antihypertensive drugs) from 3 independent studies: the French population-based 3C and MONA-LISA (Lille) studies (n = 627 and n = 769, respectively) …

Learning From Mistakes: Improving Initial Fingertip Force Scaling By Observing Lifting Errors, Gavin Buckingham, Minnie Tang, Paul Gribble, Melvyn Goodale

Gavin Buckingham

• When lifting objects that are lighter or heaver than we expect them to be, individuals typically misapply forces in a way that reflects their prior expectations of heaviness.

• Because we lift in this predictive way, large and small cubes elicit these characteristic errors even when they are adjusted to have equal mass. Lifters will apply too much force to a large cube and substantially less force to a small cube – errors that are rapidly corrected with repeated lifts (Flanagan & Beltzner, 2000).

• When watching others lift objects, an observer’s motor system automatically reacts in a way …