Psychosurgery in the History of Stereotactic Functional Neurosurgery.

The paper invites to reappraise the role of psychosurgery for and within the development of functional stereotactic neurosurgery. It highlights the significant and long-lived role of stereotactic neurosurgery in the treatment of severe and chronic mental disorders. Stereotactic neurosurgery developed out of psychosurgery. It was leucotomy for psychiatric disorders and chronic pain that paved the way for stereotactic dorsomedial thalamotomy in these indications and subsequently for stereotactic surgery in epilepsy and movement disorders. Through the 1960s stereotactic psychosurgery continued to progress in silence. Due to the increased applications of stereotactic surgery in psychiatric indications, psychosurgery's renaissance was proclaimed in the early 1970s. At the same time, however, a public fearing mind control started to discredit all functional neurosurgery for mental disorders, including stereotactic procedures. In writing its own history, stereotactic neurosurgery's identity as a neuropsychiatric discipline became subsequently increasingly redefined as principally a sort of "surgical neurology," cut off from its psychiatric origin.

The Legacy of Charles David Marsden: A Role Model in the Field of Movement Disorders.

David Marsden was one of the most renowned neuroscientists of the twentieth century. His scientific contributions in the specialty of movement disorders are recognized worldwide, particularly in the area of Parkinson's disease and also in hyperkinesias, such as dystonia and myoclonus.

Babinski's hand sign: many have tried .

Recognizing the semiologic importance of the second, and most famous, sign described by Joseph Babinski - the extension of the hallux after stimulation of the plantar region in order to differentiate organic from pithiatic paralysis- several authors have tried to find a comparable signal in the hand. After 122 years, no one has succeeded.

Babinski's hand sign: many have tried / O sinal de Babinski na mão: muitos têm tentado

ABSTRACT Recognizing the semiologic importance of the second, and most famous, sign described by Joseph Babinski - the extension of the hallux after stimulation of the plantar region in order to differentiate organic from pithiatic paralysis- several authors have tried to find a comparable signal in the hand. After 122 years, no one has succeeded.

RESUMO Reconhecida a importância semiológica do segundo e mais famoso sinal descrito por Joseph Babinski - a extensão do hálux após estimulo plantar visando diferenciar a paralisia orgânica da pitiática - diversos autores vêm tentando encontrar um sinal equiparável na mão. Após 122 anos ninguém conseguiu obter sucesso.

A peculiar condition: A history of the Jumping Frenchmen Syndrome in scientific and popular accounts.

In 1878, Dr. George Beard reported to other neurologists that in Maine there existed French-Canadian woodsmen who jumped when excited. Beard observed the phenomenon firsthand and his subsequent reports attracted the attention of Georges Gilles de la Tourette in France and other neurologists worldwide for a couple of decades. During the second half of the twentieth century, interest in the jumpers revived among neurologists, as some came forward with similar observations in different parts of Canada and the United States. This article compares and contrasts the scientific reports of the jumping syndrome with those of the popular press and highlights what they revealed about the perceived status of French-Canadian descendants.

From nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy to Sleep-Related Hypermotor Epilepsy: A 35-year diagnostic challenge.

Nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy (NFLE) is a focal epilepsy with seizures arising mainly during sleep and characterized by complex, often bizarre, motor behavior or sustained dystonic posturing. First described in 1981, it was initially considered a motor disorder of sleep and was named nocturnal paroxysmal dystonia (NPD). The unusual seizure semiology, onset during sleep, and often uninformative scalp EEG and brain MRI make it difficult to distinguish NPD attacks from other non-epileptic nocturnal paroxysmal events, namely parasomnias. The long-debated epileptic origin of the condition was finally demonstrated in 1990 and the term NFLE introduced. Even though many aspects of parasomnias and NFLE have been clarified in the last two decades, the differential diagnosis remains a challenge for clinicians. To address controversial issues and define the diagnostic criteria for NFLE, a Consensus Conference was held in Bologna, Italy in 2014. Major points of agreement emerged on: (i) the relationship of the seizures with sleep and not with the circadian pattern of seizure occurrence; (ii) the possible extrafrontal origin of hypermotor seizures, without substantial differences in seizure semiology. In the wake of the Consensus, the syndrome was renamed Sleep-Related Hypermotor Epilepsy (SHE).

The Dercum-Muybridge Collaboration and the Study of Pathologic Gaits Using Sequential Photography.

In the late 1870s and 1880s, prior to the development of movie cameras or projectors, English-American photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) photographed sequential images of people and animals in motion, using arrays of sequentially triggered single-image cameras. In 1885, Philadelphia neurologist Francis Dercum (1856-1931) collaborated with Muybridge at the University of Pennsylvania to photograph sequential images of patients with various neurological disorders involving abnormal movements, and particularly various gait disorders, including both the sensory ataxic gait of tabes dorsalis and various spastic gaits. Dercum used tracings of sequential photographic images to plot trajectories of limbs as a way to characterize and distinguish pathologic gaits. The Dercum-Muybridge collaboration produced the first motion-picture sequences of neurological gait disorders ever filmed. These sequences and the trajectory-based studies that derived from them were a milestone in studies of pathologic gaits.

Mitchell's case of "pendulum spasms": psychogenic movement disorder considered as male hysteria.

BACKGROUND: In the late 19th century, a man with a psychogenic movement disorder was evaluated by many of the Philadelphia neurologists associated with Silas Weir Mitchell. In 1885, prior to the development of movie cameras or projectors, the patient was photographed by pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge, in collaboration with neurologist Francis Dercum, using arrays of sequentially triggered single-image cameras. The photographic sequences are among the first motion picture sequences of patients with neurologic disorders. METHODS: Examination of extant primary source documents concerning this patient, including published writings and photographic sequences by Muybridge and Dercum, the original clinical descriptions, Mitchell's documentation of the patient's later clinical course, and results of the autopsy. RESULTS: Mitchell and his colleagues concluded that this was a "case of undoubted hysteria" in a man. Support for this contention includes the following: protracted course, spanning decades with temporary remissions; inconsistent character of the movement and features incongruous with typical "organic" tremors; complex, bizarre movements that are difficult to classify; increase in movements with attention; alteration in frequency of the movements with movement of the opposite arm; ability to trigger or temporarily stop the movements with unusual or nonphysiologic interventions; involvement of the opposite arm in a synchronous abnormal movement later in the course; remission with hypnotic suggestion; absence of other neurologic signs; and normal brain autopsy. CONCLUSION: The clinical history, serial examinations, photographic documentation, and autopsy results support Mitchell's contention that this was a case of male hysteria, or, in modern terminology, a psychogenic movement disorder.

[Charles David Marsden; April 15, 1938-September 29, 1998].

I would like to talk about my memories of Professor Marsden, under whom I studied clinical neurophysiology for 2.5 years in London. He was an excellent clinical neurologist, who was always chasing something new; Professor Marsden was extraordinarily good at developing new research ideas. He also had a remarkable ability to bring doctors together, and inspire them with his leadership as they worked on joint projects. It was a great honor to have worked under Professor Marsden. It has also been a pleasure to work with Professor Rothwell.

Evolution of the concept of dystonia.

The term dystonia was proposed by Hermann Oppenheim in 1911, but reports of cervical dystonia are finding since the Roman Empire. The differentiation of the dystonia between a neurological and a psychiatric disease turned a lot. Sometimes was proposed, further, the exclusion of the dystonia as a different phenomenon among the movement disorders. The hypothesis of emotional etiology of the dystonias increase in the decade of 1960 and the conclusion of the etiology of dystonia only happened in the decades of 1970 and 1980 with a series of works of Charles David Marsden. These researches defined dystonia as a movement disorder caused by lesion in the basal ganglia. In February of 1984, a committee of members of Scientific Advisory Board of the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation developed the definition for dystonia accepts until 2013 when an international committee developed the new concept.