Review Articles in 2007

A range of impulse control disorders (ICDs), including pathological gambling, compulsive shopping and impulsive aggression, has been recognized in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). This Review provides the neurologist with an understanding of the clinical and biological features of ICDs and the nature of their relationship with PD. The authors also offer guidance on the management of PD patients with an ICD.

Despite advances in treatment approaches for patients with high-grade glioma, the overall prognosis remains poor. In this article, Castellino and Durden highlight the important role of angiogenesis in the pathogenesis of brain tumors, and discuss the development of new therapies that target angiogenesis in high-grade glioma by regulating the activity of the PI3K–Akt–PTEN signaling node.

It is estimated that around one-third of patients with new-onset epilepsy will eventually develop medically intractable seizures. Many patients with intractable epilepsy are likely to benefit from surgery, which, by controlling the seizures, can substantially improve quality of life and reduce the costs of medical care. In this article, Kuzniecky and Devinsky review the current surgical management of epilepsy, including identification of candidates, localization of the seizure focus, and surgical techniques.

The extent to which white matter lesions affect brain function in elderly individuals has important implications for the development of drugs to treat cognitive impairment and dementia. In this article, Frisoni et al. argue that white matter lesions can contribute to cognitive impairment in elderly individuals, although their effects are minor when compared with those of other causes of cognitive deterioration, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Migraine is a common disabling brain disorder that—considering its clinical and economic impact—is understudied and in need of additional management options. In this Review, Peter Goadsby outlines new pharmaceutical and device-based approaches to migraine treatment by describing their potential mechanisms of action and the clinical data that are currently available.

Surgery is becoming a viable treatment option for an increasing proportion of patients with low-grade gliomas, but there is a lack of class I evidence to support its efficacy. In this Review, Pouratianet al. critically analyze the utility of surgery in low-grade glioma. They highlight recent technological advances that have made this approach safer and more accessible, and consider the challenges involved in designing trials to assess the extent to which aggressive resection improves prognosis.

Prematurely born infants are at high risk of brain injury, but although structural and volumetric alterations often persist into later life, there is strong evidence of recovery from cognitive impairments associated with preterm birth. In this Review, Ment and Constable discuss how functional MRI techniques are providing important insights into the adaptive mechanisms of the developing preterm brain, including the engagement of alternative neural networks for language and memory.

Small-fiber neuropathy is a condition that has been underdiagnosed in the past, partly because small nerve fibers cannot be observed using routine neurophysiological tests. Skin biopsy is a safe, minimally invasive tool that can provide important diagnostic information on small nerve fibers, and in this article Lauria and Devigili discuss how this approach is being applied to the diagnosis and monitoring of peripheral neuropathies.

Findings in animal models of Huntington's disease and levodopa-induced dyskinesia indicate that corticostriatal long-term potentiation is abnormally stable in these conditions, causing persistent inhibition of the output nuclei of the basal ganglia, which leads to involuntary movements. In this article, Centonze et al. review evidence that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation can interfere with the maintenance of corticostriatal long-term potentiation in humans, and might, therefore, be useful as an antidyskinetic treatment.

Huntington's disease (HD) accounts for around 90% of cases of chorea of genetic etiology, but a number of other distinct genetic disorders can present with a clinical picture indistinguishable from HD. In this article, Schneider et al. review the clinical features and genetic bases of these HD-like syndromes, discussing the clinical clues that should prompt further investigations in patients presenting with these conditions.

Activation of the ligand-inducible transcription factor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) has been shown to suppress inflammation in peripheral macrophages and in models of human autoimmune disease. As Heneka et al. discuss in this Review, PPARγ is now being investigated as a potential therapeutic target in CNS disorders with an inflammatory component, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis.

In children, nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) is associated with various conditions, including acute neurological injuries and specific childhood epilepsy syndromes, and it can also be observed in individuals with learning difficulties. In this article, Korff and Nordli review various aspects of NCSE, including clinical and electroencephalographic features, prognosis, and treatment recommendations. They also highlight the need for further research into NCSE in pediatric populations.

In this Review, Sacktor et al. summarize our current understanding of HIV-associated cognitive impairment in resource-limited settings, focusing specifically on the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. They also consider the potential impact of HIV-1 clade diversity on HIV-associated neurological disease.

Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease is the most common inherited disease of the PNS. This Review summarizes our current understanding of the genetic and molecular mechanisms that underlie the demyelinating forms of Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease. The authors also discuss how knowledge of these mechanisms is guiding the development of strategies to diagnose and treat these conditions in the clinic.

The emerging field of neuroprosthetics is focused on the development of therapeutic interventions that restore lost neural function by stimulating sensory or motor pathways, or by harnessing activity recorded from remnant neural pathways to control an external device. As Richard Normann discusses in this Review, penetrating microelectrode arrays are providing unprecedented selective access to the neurons of the CNS and PNS, and are likely to form the basis for new therapies for disorders of the nervous system.

Last year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was won by Andrew Fire and Craig Mello for their discovery of RNA interference, an evolutionarily conserved cellular pathway that regulates endogenous gene expression. In this Review, Gonzalez and Paulson discuss how RNA interference is being exploited experimentally to suppress the expression of dominantly acting genes that cause incurable neurodegenerative disorders, and highlight the questions that need to be answered before human clinical trials of this technology can commence.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized pathologically by the deposition in the brain of amyloid-β peptides generated through proteolysis of amyloid precursor protein (APP). In this article, Cheng et al. review evidence that amyloidogenic processing of APP takes place predominantly in cholesterol-rich membrane microdomains known as lipid rafts. They also discuss potential new therapeutic strategies based on the targeting of APP processing in lipid rafts.

The use of brain stimulation for the treatment of neurological diseases such as chronic pain, Parkinson's disease, stroke and epilepsy has attracted growing attention. In this article, Fregni and Pascual-Leone review the recent literature regarding the use of two noninvasive brain stimulation techniques: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation. The authors discuss the underlying principles and present examples illustrating the therapeutic potential of these two techniques.

Baló's concentric sclerosis (BCS) is a demyelinating disorder characterized by white matter lesions consisting of rings of demyelination alternating with rings of relatively intact myelin. In this Review, Mowryet al.discuss how advanced neuroimaging techniques have contributed to our understanding of the pathogenesis of BCS, as well as enabling clinicians to distinguish BCS from other demyelinating disorders such as multiple sclerosis. The authors explore these themes further in a Case Study in this issue.

Diabetic neuropathy—the most common neuropathy in industrialized countries—encompasses a broad range of clinical manifestations. In this Review, Gérard Said discusses the clinical, pathological and therapeutic aspects of various forms of diabetic neuropathy, including length-dependent diabetic polyneuropathy and focal diabetic neuropathies. The author also addresses the diagnosis of nondiabetic neuropathies in patients with diabetes.