004). The number of near-falls during the Liproxstatin-1 nmr first trial was significantly correlated with centre of mass displacement during the first trial and with habituation

rate.

Conclusions: Higher first trial reactions and a slow habituation rate discriminated Parkinson’s patients from controls, but habituated trials did not. Further work should demonstrate whether this also applies to clinical balance tests, such as the pull test, and whether repeated delivery of such tests offers better diagnostic value for evaluating fall risks in parkinsonian patients. (C) 2012 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Several case definitions of chronic illness in veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War have been linked epidemiologically with environmental exposure to cholinesterase-inhibiting chemicals, which cause chronic changes in cholinergic receptors in animal models. Twenty-one chronically ill Gulf War veterans (5 with

symptom complex 1, 11 with complex 2, and 5 with complex 3) and 17 age-, sex- and education-matched controls, underwent an 99mTc-HMPAO-SPECT brain scan following infusion of saline and >48 h later a second scan following infusion of physostigmine in saline. From each SPECT image mean normalized regional cerebral blood flow (nrCBF) from 39 small blocks of correlated voxels were extracted with geostatistical spatial modeling from eight deep gray matter structures in each hemisphere. Baseline nrCBF in symptom complex 2 was lower than controls

throughout deep structures. The change in nrCBF after physostigmine (challenge minus baseline) was negative in complexes AP24534 clinical trial I and 3 and controls but positive in complex 2 Prexasertib nmr in some structures. Since effects were opposite in different groups, no finding typified the entire patient sample. A hold-out discriminant model of nrCBF from 17 deep brain blocks predicted membership in the clinical groups with sensitivity of 0.95 and specificity of 0.82. Gulf War-associated chronic encephalopathy in a subset of veterans may be due to neuronal dysfunction, including abnormal cholinergic response, in deep brain structures. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“A considerable body of evidence links diminished brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling to energy balance dysregulation and severe obesity in humans and rodents. Because BDNF exhibits broad neurotrophic properties, the underpinnings of these effects and its true role in the central regulation of food intake remain topics of debate in the field. Here, I discuss recent evidence supporting a critical role for this neurotrophin in physiological mechanisms regulating nutrient intake and body weight in the mature brain. They include reports of functional interactions of BDNF with central anorexigenic and orexigenic signaling pathways and evidence of recognized appetite hormones exerting neurotrophic effects similar to those of BDNF.