Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

Thirty years of brain imaging research has converged to define the brain’s default network—a novel and only recently appreciated brain system that participates in internal modes of cognition Here we synthesize past observations to provide strong evidence that the default network is a specific, anatomically defined brain system preferentially active when individuals are not focused on the external environment Analysis of connectional anatomy in the monkey supports the presence of an interconnected brain system Providing insight into function, the default network is active when individuals are engaged in internally focused tasks including autobiographical memory retrieval, envisioning the future, and conceiving the perspectives of others Probing the functional anatomy of the network in detail reveals that it is best understood as multiple interacting subsystems The medial temporal lobe subsystem provides information from prior experiences in the form of memories and associations that are the building blocks of mental simulation The medial prefrontal subsystem facilitates the flexible use of this information during the construction of self-relevant mental simulations These two subsystems converge on important nodes of integration including the posterior cingulate cortex The implications of these functional and anatomical observations are discussed in relation to possible adaptive roles of the default network for using past experiences to plan for the future, navigate social interactions, and maximize the utility of moments when we are not otherwise engaged by the external world We conclude by discussing the relevance of the default network for understanding mental disorders including autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease

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The Brain's Default Network Anatomy, Function, and Relevance to Disease

Information about the basal ganglia has accumulated at a prodigious pace over the past decade, necessitating major revisions in our concepts of the structural and functional organization of these nuclei. From earlier data it had appeared that the basal ganglia served primarily to integrate diverse inputs from the entire cerebral cortex and to "funnel" these influences, via the ventrolateral thalamus, to the motor cortex (Allen & Tsukahara 1974, Evarts & Thach 1969, Kemp & Powell 1971). In particular, the basal

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Parallel Organization of Functionally Segregated Circuits Linking Basal Ganglia and Cortex

This paper describes FieldTrip, an open source software package that we developed for the analysis of MEG, EEG, and other electrophysiological data. The software is implemented as a MATLAB toolbox and includes a complete set of consistent and user-friendly high-level functions that allow experimental neuroscientists to analyze experimental data. It includes algorithms for simple and advanced analysis, such as time-frequency analysis using multitapers, source reconstruction using dipoles, distributed sources and beamformers, connectivity analysis, and nonparametric statistical permutation tests at the channel and source level. The implementation as toolbox allows the user to perform elaborate and structured analyses of large data sets using the MATLAB command line and batch scripting. Furthermore, users and developers can easily extend the functionality and implement new algorithms. The modular design facilitates the reuse in other software packages.

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FieldTrip: open source software for advanced analysis of MEG, EEG, and invasive electrophysiological data

I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

Re-emergent tremor provocation.

The cerebellum has recently been highlighted as a key neural substrate responsible for dystonia. A 57-year-old female presented with isolated focal leg dystonia that developed 8 years after acute cerebellar infarction. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed an old cerebellar infarct in the right anterior cerebellum. Low-frequency cerebellar repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on the right cerebellum partially improved dystonia in this patient. This case provides valuable evidence on cerebellar mechanisms related to the development of dystonia in a topographically specific manner. Cerebellar brain stimulation can be a potential therapeutic strategy for patients with dystonia.

Focal Leg Dystonia Associated with Cerebellar Infarction and Application of Low-Frequency Cerebellar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Evidence of Topographically Specific Cerebellar Contribution to Dystonia Development.

The Neurologic Examination: Scientific Basis for Clinical Diagnosis

Stuttering is a disturbance of normal fluency of speech whose pathophysiology is still not well understood. We investigated one of the most ancient speech disorders in the biblical person Moses who lived in approximately 1300 BC. To get the most complete medical and non-medical information on Moses, we did systematic searches in the Holy Bible using the Bible-Discovery v2.3© software (
 http://www.bible-discovery.com
 ) looking for verses containing the terms “Moses”, “Stuttering” and “Stutter”; and in PubMed/Medline database for manuscripts having the terms “Moses”, “Bible” and “Stuttering”. From the Bible search, 742 verses were found, of which 23 were relevant; three additional verses were found by hand search. Six papers discussing Moses’s pathology were found in the PubMed search. The analysis of ancient descriptions in the light of current research suggests that stuttering is the most likely pathology Moses had, with clear evidence for both genetic origin and environmental triggers. Further, it was found that Moses practiced some “sensory tricks” that could be used to relieve his speech disorder which are, to our knowledge, the first “tricks” that successfully modulated a movement disorder described in the medical literature.

Nature and nurture in stuttering: a systematic review on the case of Moses.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Abnormalities of finger representations in the somatosensory cortex have been identified in patients with focal hand dystonia. Measuring blood flow with positron emission tomography (PET) can be use to demonstrate functional localization of receptive fields. METHODS A vibratory stimulus was applied to the right thumb and little finger of six healthy volunteers and six patients with focal hand dystonia to map their receptive fields using H2 (15)O PET. RESULTS The cortical finger representations in the primary somatosensory cortex were closer to each other in patients than in normal subjects. No abnormalities were found in secondary somatosensory cortex, but the somatotopy there is less well distinguished. CONCLUSIONS These data confirm prior electrophysiological and functional neuroimaging observations showing abnormalities of finger representations in somatosensory cortex of patients with focal hand dystonia.

Mark Hallett

Papers

Re-emergent tremor provocation.

Focal Leg Dystonia Associated with Cerebellar Infarction and Application of Low-Frequency Cerebellar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Evidence of Topographically Specific Cerebellar Contribution to Dystonia Development.

The Neurologic Examination: Scientific Basis for Clinical Diagnosis

Nature and nurture in stuttering: a systematic review on the case of Moses.

Reorganization of the human somatosensory cortex in hand dystonia.