Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyū no shinpo
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Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has proved highly effective in the treatment for Parkinson's disease and dystonia. Presently, many types of dopamine agonists, monoamine oxidase B (MAOB) inhibitors, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitor or other antiparkinsonian drugs are being developed. However, it is still very difficult to medically treat motor complications associated with levodopa therapy. ⋯ The brain mechanism underlying the improvement of pallidal DBS in dystonia has been unclear. Many studies on DBS in Parkinson's disease and dystonia have been carried out to elucidate the clinical outcomes and/or the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. In this review, the clinical outcomes of DBS for Parkinson's disease and dystonia will be focused on.
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Review Case Reports
[Case of paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis associated with malignant B cell lymphoma].
We report a case of a 62-year-old man with limbic encephalitis associated with diffuse large B cell lymphoma. He was hospitalized for the assessment of cognitive disturbance and changes in characteristics. Neurological examination revealed disturbance of recall and recent memory. ⋯ We investigated 7 previously reported cases of paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis associated with malignant lymphoma in Japan. We suggest that an early diagnosis of paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis with progressive symptoms such as changes in characteristics is important. Early diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors is desirable to facilitate clinical recovery and improve prognosis.
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It has been reported that amebic meningoencephalitis is caused by some rhizopods, which are taxonomically different from Entamoeba histolytica which is well known as the causative agent of amebic dysentery. Different types of human meningoencephalitis have been reported to be caused by amphizoic amebae, which are not obligatorily parasitic (endozoic) but are usually free-living (exozoic) in nature, i.e., in environmental water and soil: Naegleria fowleri causes acute primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Acanthamoeba spp. and Balamuthia mandrillaris produce chronic and opportunistic granulomatous amebic (meningo) encephalitis (GAE). Further, most recently, Sappinia diploidea has been identified as an agent that causes comparatively acute type of encephalitis.
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Neuroethics was originated in 2002 in the United States. In 2004, the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX), a subsection of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), launched a neuroethics research group as the first research group to focus on the academic study and public engagement in neuroethics in Japan. ⋯ We also introduce brief results of public survey of neuroscience research in Japan that suggest the significance of ethics and education regarding neuroscience to overview the future vision on neuroethics. We further discuss the role of neuroscientists in the future progress in neuroethics.
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There have been considerable disputes the positioning of neuroethics as a new field since its emergence in 2002. It is the novelty of the neuroethical issues and the necessity for updated moral approaches to them that leading exponents of neuroethics have emphasized; advances in neurosciences have created an entirely new field of moral inquiries that the conventional bioethics had never noticed. Futher, as neuroethics embraces the subdivision of ethics in neuroscience, it should take precedence over bioethics, which depends on the fundamental moral concepts without questioning their bases. ⋯ Moreover, bioethicists point out that the recent tendency of Balkanization in the field of bioethics could endanger the integrity of moral investigations. Subfields of bioethics, such as geneethics, neuroethics, nanoethics and so on, originate consecutively, entail wastage of valuable time and money, and increase the risk of fragmentizing moral considerations in an inconsistent way. By reviewing this controversy between neuroethics and bioethics, I argue that the relevant scientific investigations and technologies, which have appeared to promote the proliferation of bioethical sub-disciplines to date, are beginning to converge into 1 complex that demands not the division into subspecialities but the novel integration of bioethical inquiries: it is time to attempt the unification of bioethical applied ethics for moral considerations regarding nano-bio-info-cogno convergent technologies.