Volume 7 Issue 2, February 2011

Advances in Alzheimer disease (AD) research during 2010 have identified promising novel diagnostic tools and therapeutic targets for this condition, and suggest that amyloid-β immunotherapy reduces plaque load in patients with AD. A new lexicon for AD has also been proposed.

In 2010, progress in the headache field was marked by four very different key advances: clarification of the mechanisms of extracephalic allodynia, approval of onabotulinumtoxinA for chronic migraine prophylaxis, validation of combined pharmacological and behavioral treatments for migraine, and establishment of oxygen as an effective acute treatment for cluster headache.

Many articles were published in 2010 that had or will conceivably have a major impact on the field of stroke. With regard to practical patient care, however, several pivotal studies investigating avenues for optimal management of carotid artery atherosclerotic disease were especially important.

Research conducted in 2010 has shown that surgical and dopaminergic treatments for Parkinson disease (PD) can promote the development of nonmotor symptoms, such as impulse control disorders and apathy. Lesions in cholinergic pathways have also been shown to partly underlie deficits in gait and posture in patients with advanced PD.

The most appropriate treatment for absence seizures and the teratogenic effects of valproate were clarified in 2010. Advances were also made in the use of both functional MRI to predict the adverse effects of neurosurgical resection and electrical stimulation to control epilepsy in patients who are not suitable for resection.

2010 represented a milestone in the history of multiple sclerosis monitoring and treatment. MRI and immunological biomarkers were identified to track disease evolution and, ultimately, to guide treatment decisions. Moreover, oral disease-modifying therapies emerged that should increase treatment regimen adherence and improve patient outcomes.

Motor impairment is a common symptom of stroke. Several processes, such as innate neuroplasticity, are considered to underlie gains in motor function after stroke. In this article, Dimyan and Cohen provide a review of neuroplasticity associated with poststroke motor impairment and highlight the latest experimental interventions being developed to manipulate neuroplasticity to enhance motor rehabilitation.

Following a stroke, patients can have problems speaking and understanding language (aphasia). During the past decade, several therapies for poststroke aphasia have been developed on the basis of knowledge gained from advances in neuroscience research. In this article, Berthier and Pulvermüller provide an overview of these advances in poststroke neurorehabilitation and highlight the physiological processes that are considered to underlie their beneficial effects.

Drug-resistant focal epilepsy is potentially curable by surgery, but conventional MRI based on visual evaluation is sometimes unable to reveal a lesion for resection. In this Review, Bernasconi and colleagues consider recent advances in brain imaging for the detection of lesions in cases of so-called cryptogenic epilepsy, covering developments in MRI morphometry, computational modeling and diffusion tensor imaging.

To date, existing and emerging therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) have been evaluated solely in adult patients. MS in children is being increasingly recognized, however, and optimization of pediatric MS care requires that promising new therapies be made available to children and adolescents. Banwell et al. highlight the immunological, clinical and practical factors that must be considered when introducing new MS therapies into the pediatric population.