Article
Clinical Neurology
Jeremy C. Ganz
Summary: This article explores the evolution of ideas and practices in the management of meningeal injury from ancient times to the end of the 18th century. It was not until the 18th century that it became clear that opening the skull to relieve pressure from hematomas was the indication for intervention. The important clinical finding for intervention was changes in the level of consciousness.
WORLD NEUROSURGERY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Cheng Xia, Hui-Sheng Chen
Summary: This case report describes a 33-year-old man presenting with baryglossia, memory disturbance, and seizures. The presence of anti-NMDAR antibody in both serum and CSF was confirmed. MRI showed abnormalities in the cortical and subcortical regions, along with thickening and enhancement of the meninges. Treatment with immunoglobulin and high-dose methylprednisolone led to significant improvement in symptoms and resolution of MRI findings.
Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Bishweshwar Pant, Mira Park, Allison A. Kim
Summary: Dural defects are a common problem in neurosurgical procedures and various types of dural substitutes, including electrospun nanofibers, have been used for their repair. This review summarizes the investigation and development of electrospun nanofibers for dura mater regeneration, highlighting their interesting properties and current limitations. The objective is to provide readers with a quick overview of recent advances in electrospinning for dura mater repair.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Tatiana Carrozzini, Giuliana Pollaci, Gemma Gorla, Antonella Potenza, Nicola Rifino, Francesco Acerbi, Ignazio G. G. Vetrano, Paolo Ferroli, Anna Bersano, Erica Gianazza, Cristina Banfi, Laura Gatti
Summary: Moyamoya angiopathy (MMA) is a rare cerebrovascular disease characterized by progressive steno-occlusive lesions and collateral vessel development. Surgical treatment, particularly indirect revascularization, is preferred. By performing proteomic characterization, a potential gene, Filamin A, was identified, suggesting a role in MMA pathogenesis. This study provides insights into the molecular understanding of this disabling intracranial vasculopathy.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Polymer Science
Zhiyuan Zhao, Tong Wu, Yu Cui, Rui Zhao, Qi Wan, Rui Xu
Summary: This study developed a nanofibrous dura mater (NDM) as an alternative to conventional dural grafts to avoid complications. The NDM was found to inhibit excessive cell proliferation and have a protective effect on damaged cells.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Justyna Anna Niestrawska, Marko Rodewald, Constanze Schultz, Elsie Quansah, Tobias Meyer-Zedler, Michael Schmitt, Juergen Popp, Igor Tomasec, Benjamin Ondruschka, Niels Hammer
Summary: This study examines the link between location-dependent mechanical anisotropy and principal collagen fiber orientation in the human dura mater. The quantitative observation of collagen fiber orientation and dispersion confirms that collagen is highly aligned in the dura mater and that both fiber orientation and dispersion differ depending on the location investigated. These findings provide insight into the previously observed isotropic mechanical behavior and have implications for the mechanical load response and regional functions of the dura mater.
ACTA BIOMATERIALIA
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
S. Cavelier, R. D. Quarrington, C. F. Jones
Summary: The mechanical properties of porcine pericranium and spinal dura mater were characterized and compared in this study. The findings suggest that longitudinally oriented pericranium is mechanically compatible with spinal duraplasty procedures. However, further analysis is needed to study the effect of the lower yield strain of circumferential pericranium compared to spinal dura.
JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS
(2022)
Review
Neurosciences
Dirk Feldmeyer
Summary: Cortical layer 6b, considered a remnant of the subplate from early neocortical development, has recently gained attention for its functional role. This review provides an overview of the excitatory and inhibitory neurons in layer 6b, their connectivity, and functional implications. It also highlights similarities and differences between different cortical areas, as well as the responsiveness of layer 6b neurons to neuropeptides and neurotransmitters.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Sweyta Lohani, Andrew H. Moberly, Hadas Benisty, Boris Landa, Miao Jing, Yulong Li, Michael J. Higley, Jessica A. Cardin
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between fluctuations in behavioral state and brain activity, particularly focusing on the role of acetylcholine in the neocortex. The findings suggest that different levels of arousal in distinct behavioral states are linked to dynamic patterns of cholinergic modulation and network correlations.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Tong Wang, Zhou Yu, Yajuan Song, Liu Yang, Lin Chen, Juanli Dang, Xianhui Zeng, Shuzhong Guo, Yingjun Su, Baoqiang Song
Summary: The effect of the dura mater on the integration of porous titanium implants and cranial bone was evaluated in this study. It was found that the group with intact dura mater showed significantly higher bone volume/total volume and trabecular number. Histological analysis also revealed more newly formed bone and calcification deposition in this group. These findings indicate that having an intact dura mater improves the osteogenesis and osteointegration properties of porous titanium implants.
MATERIALS TODAY COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Lei Chen, Jeremiah P. Hartner, Tianshu Kelly Dong, Annie D. R. Li, Brendon O. Watson, Albert J. Shih
Summary: Understanding in vivo forces and tissue dimpling during micro-electrode implantation into the brain is crucial for minimizing damage and enabling accurate placement. A new system with mu N-level resolution was developed for force measurements, showing that microwire tip sharpening and diameter reduction can reduce membrane rupture force and ease brain surface penetration. Multi-shank silicon probes exhibit smaller dimpling and rupture force compared to single shank devices.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Polymer Science
Francesca Rossi, Giada Magni, Roberto Colasanti, Martina Banchelli, Maurizio Iacoangeli, Erika Carrassi, Denis Aiudi, Alessandro Di Rienzo, Luca Giannoni, Laura Pieri, Stefano Dallari, Roberto Pini, Paolo Matteini
Summary: The study optimized a laser-based approach for repairing dura mater, demonstrating its feasibility and effectiveness. Results showed that laser bonding can safely and effectively repair dura mater, encouraging further experiments in in vivo models.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
J. Zwirner, B. Ondruschka, M. Scholze, A. Thambyah, J. Workman, N. Hammer, J. A. Niestrawska
Summary: The human dura mater, which plays a role in mitigating brain tissue response under dynamic loading conditions, is often overlooked in computational and physical human head models due to a lack of load-deformation data. This study aimed to investigate the strain rate-dependent mechanical properties of the dura mater at different velocities and found that increasing the load application velocity increases stiffness and decreases tensile strength as well as straining potential. Therefore, the elastic modulus of the human dura mater should be adjusted in computational head impact simulations according to the respective velocities.
JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Pandi Chen, Fenglong Li, Guyue Wang, Binbin Ying, Chao Chen, Ying Tian, Maosong Chen, Kyung Jin Lee, Wu Bin Ying, Jin Zhu
Summary: Artificial dura mater plays a crucial role in brain and spinal cord protection and support, but surgical tears are often unavoidable. This study has developed a multifunctional polyurethane (LSPU-2) with biocompatibility, anti-leakage, and self-healing properties, which matches the mechanical properties of the dura mater. It exhibits extremely low cytotoxicity and does not cause any negative skin lesions, and its anti-leakage properties have been confirmed. LSPU-2 can completely self-heal within 115 minutes at human body temperature, making it one of the most promising potential artificial dura materials.
MACROMOLECULAR BIOSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Cell Biology
Perry W. E. Spratt, Ryan P. D. Alexander, Roy Ben-Shalom, Atehsa Sahagun, Henry Kyoung, Caroline M. Keeshen, Stephan J. Sanders, Kevin J. Bender
Summary: The loss of Na(V)1.2 channels in pyramidal neurons leads to intrinsically hyperexcitable neurons, firing high-frequency bursts of action potentials despite reductions in AP size and speed. This cell-intrinsic mechanism may explain why loss-of-function variants in SCN2A gene paradoxically promote seizure.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Maria Stefanidou, Jayandra J. Himali, Orrin Devinsky, Jose R. Romero, Mohammad Arfan Ikram, Alexa S. Beiser, Sudha Seshadri, Daniel Friedman
Summary: The study found that hypertension is a risk factor for predicting late-onset epilepsy, with nearly 2-fold increased risk even after adjustment for previous and interim stroke.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Joyce Y. Wu, Hannah R. Cock, Orrin Devinsky, Charuta Joshi, Ian Miller, Colin M. Roberts, Rocio Sanchez-Carpintero, Daniel Checketts, Farhad Sahebkar
Summary: By conducting a post hoc analysis of GWPCARE6 trial, the onset of CBD treatment effect was found to occur within 6-10 days. AEs lasted longer for CBD patients, but most patients experienced resolution of common AEs during the 16-week trial.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Joseph Sullivan, Nicola Specchio, Orrin Devinsky, Stephane Auvin, M. Scott Perry, Adam Strzelczyk, Antonio Gil-Nagel, David Dai, Bradley S. Galer, Arnold R. Gammaitoni
Summary: The study demonstrates that adjunctive use of fenfluramine can significantly reduce day-to-day seizure burden in patients with DS, providing prolonged periods of convulsive seizure-free days, which may help reduce the physical and emotional disease toll while improving health-related quality of life for patients and caregivers.
Editorial Material
Clinical Neurology
Orrin Devinsky
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Timothee Proix, Jaime Delgado Saa, Andy Christen, Stephanie Martin, Brian N. Pasley, Robert T. Knight, Xing Tian, David Poeppel, Werner K. Doyle, Orrin Devinsky, Luc H. Arnal, Pierre Megevand, Anne-Lise Giraud
Summary: Researchers extracted consistent and specific neural features from patients performing speech production tasks and found that low-frequency power and cross-frequency dynamics play a key role in decoding imagined speech.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Muge Ozker, Werner Doyle, Orrin Devinsky, Adeen Flinker
Summary: Hearing one's own voice is crucial for fluent speech production and can help detect and correct vocalization errors in real time. Research has found that both the auditory cortex and the dorsal precentral gyrus play important roles in processing auditory error signals during speech production.
Article
Psychology, Biological
Sam Norman-Haignere, Laura K. Long, Orrin Devinsky, Werner Doyle, Ifeoma Irobunda, Edward M. Merricks, Neil A. Feldstein, Guy M. McKhann, Catherine A. Schevon, Adeen Flinker, Nima Mesgarani
Summary: The human brain integrates information across multiple timescales to derive meaning from sound. Our study reveals that the auditory cortex hierarchically integrates across diverse timescales ranging from 50 to 400 ms, and different neural populations with short and long integration windows exhibit distinct functional properties.
NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Smriti Patodia, Alyma Somani, Joan Liu, Alice Cattaneo, Beatrice Paradiso, Maria Garcia, Muhammad Othman, Beate Diehl, Orrin Devinsky, James D. Mills, Jackie Foong, Maria Thom
Summary: Multiple lines of evidence suggest a link between deficient serotonin function and SUDEP, with chronic treatment using serotonin reuptake inhibitors shown to reduce the risk factors associated with SUDEP. Decreased medullary serotonergic neurons, which regulate respiration in response to hypercapnia, have been found in post-mortem SUDEP cases. Additionally, the high innervation of serotonergic neurons in the amygdala and hippocampus, regions involved in seizure-related respiratory dysregulation, further supports the potential involvement of altered serotonergic networks in SUDEP.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Jerzy P. P. Szaflarski, Orrin Devinsky, Merrick Lopez, Yong D. D. Park, Pilar Pichon Zentil, Anup D. D. Patel, Elizabeth A. A. Thiele, Robert T. T. Wechsler, Daniel Checketts, Farhad Sahebkar
Summary: The CBD expanded access program initiated in 2014 provided additional CBD treatment for patients with treatment-resistant epilepsies. The study showed that CBD treatment was effective in reducing seizure frequency and had an acceptable safety profile for long-term use in patients with treatment-resistant epilepsies.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Robert J. Flamini, Anne M. Comi, E. Martina Bebin, Michael G. Chez, Gary Clark, Orrin Devinsky, Shaun A. Hussain, Paul D. Lyons, Anup D. Patel, Jillian L. Rosengard, Farhad Sahebkar, Eric Segal, Laurie Seltzer, Jerzy P. Szaflarski, Arie Weinstock
Summary: The CBD Expanded Access Program provided CBD treatment to patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy and showed a significant reduction in seizure frequency. CBD was well tolerated and effective in treating both convulsive and nonconvulsive seizure types. Controlled trials are needed to further confirm these findings.
Editorial Material
Clinical Neurology
Pavel Klein, Gregory L. Krauss, Bernhard J. Steinhoff, Orrin Devinsky, Michael R. Sperling
Summary: Despite the approval of numerous antiseizure medications (ASMs), a significant number of epilepsy patients still experience seizures. Two new ASMs, cenobamate and fenfluramine, have shown improved efficacy in reducing seizures with sustained results. However, these medications are underutilized, likely due to limited knowledge, access restrictions, and insufficient post-launch information about their efficacy and safety. Addressing these issues can improve seizure control and ultimately reduce morbidity and mortality in epilepsy patients.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Joseph Sullivan, Lieven Lagae, J. Helen Cross, Orrin Devinsky, Renzo G. Guerrini, Kelly Knupp, Linda Laux, Marina Nikanorova, Tilman Polster, Dinesh Talwar, Berten Ceulemans, Rima M. Nabbout, Gail S. Farfel, Bradley R. Galer, Arnold Gammaitoni, Michael Lock, Anupam E. Agarwal, Ingrid Scheffer, FAiRE DS Study Grp
Summary: This study examined the safety and effectiveness of fenfluramine in treating convulsive seizures in patients with Dravet syndrome. The results showed that patients treated with fenfluramine had lower seizure frequency and longer interval between seizures compared to the placebo group. Common side effects of fenfluramine were observed, but no evidence of severe cardiac or vascular issues was found.
Review
Clinical Neurology
Laura Gould, Victoria Delavale, Caitlin Plovnick, Thomas Wisniewski, Orrin Devinsky
Summary: Febrile seizures are associated with an increased risk of epilepsy and rare cases of sudden unexplained death. Mortality rates varied in different studies, with some reporting no deaths and others identifying a significant percentage of deaths associated with febrile seizures. Minor hippocampal histopathological anomalies were common in sudden deaths with or without a history of febrile seizures. Most electroencephalography (EEG) studies were normal, and neuroimaging studies suggested increased right hippocampal volumes. Longer-term prospective studies are needed to fully understand the outcomes of simple or brief complex febrile seizures.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Rodrigo Ordonez Sierra, Lizeth Katherine Pedraza, Livia Barcsai, Andrea Pejin, Qun Li, Gabor Kozak, Yuichi Takeuchi, Anett J. Nagy, Magor L. Lorincz, Orrin Devinsky, Gyoergy Buzsaki, Antal Berenyi
Summary: Dysregulated fear reactions can be caused by maladaptive processing of trauma-related memories. By manipulating hippocampal SWRs and cortical oscillations, fear extinction can be enhanced in male rats. The modified fear memories become resistant to recall and do not spontaneously reemerge. This effect is mediated by D2 receptor signaling-induced synaptic remodeling in the basolateral amygdala. These findings demonstrate the potential of neuromodulation in augmenting extinction learning and provide a new avenue for anxiety disorder treatments.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Heather E. Olson, Sam Amin, Nadia Bahi-Buisson, Orrin Devinsky, Eric D. Marsh, Elia Pestana-Knight, Rajsekar R. Rajaraman, Alex A. Aimetti, Eva Rybak, Fanhui Kong, Ian Miller, Joseph Hulihan, Scott Demarest
Summary: This study reports the 2-year safety and clinical outcomes of ganaxolone treatment in patients with CDD. The results show that ganaxolone significantly reduces major motor seizure frequency and maintains its efficacy and safety over the long term.
