Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
MRI-based diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis (MS) have been devised for use in adult populations, but diagnosis of MS in children remains a challenge. To address this issue, a new study attempts to identify MRI characteristics that predict development of MS in children with acute demyelinating syndromes.
Therapeutic hypothermia is widely recognized to have neuroprotective effects in various clinical settings, from cardiac arrest to traumatic brain injury; however, the practical application of this therapy is not without risk. Choi et al. highlight current methods and protocols of targeted temperature management, and discuss the practical considerations for hypothermia as a therapy for patients with acute brain injury.
Self-projection allows an individual to remember the past, simulate the future and imagine the viewpoints of others, and seems to be mediated by key frontal and temporal lobe regions of the so-called default network of the brain. Irish and colleagues discuss pathological changes to the default network and self-projective functions in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), focusing on behavioral variant FTD and semantic dementia.
Chronic migraine is a severely disabling condition that is poorly recognized and undertreated by clinicians. Much debate has existed over the nomenclature and diagnostic criteria for this condition and, until 2007, there had been a paucity of clinical trial data for preventive therapies. In this Review, Diener and colleagues discuss the evolution of terminology and definitions used for chronic migraine, as well as the epidemiology, pathophysiology and treatment of this condition.
Predicting response to therapy in individual patients with epilepsy is not straightforward. An exploration of long-term surgical outcomes in an epilepsy cohort has identified seven patterns of remission and relapse, and the probability of each outcome has been calculated. The study provides new predictors of postoperative outcomes in epilepsy.
Intensive glucose management, if begun early, diminishes the long-term complications of diabetes. Whether the cognitive domain also benefits from such therapy is not clear, and has remained subject to investigation. Do the new results from the ACCORD-MIND study settle the issue?
Genetically determined epilepsy with encephalopathy can develop early in life, often with prenatal onset, which makes diagnosis difficult. New molecular screening studies have identified causative mutations in patients with early-onset epilepsy with encephalopathy. What can we learn from the results of genetic screening in patients with this disorder?
Undetected spinal fractures can cause damage of the spinal cord and lead to adverse neurological outcomes. A recent study on a pediatric cohort has shown that noncontiguous spinal injuries are often missed on primary radiographic examination, highlighting the need for combined radiographic, clinical and neurophysiological examinations to detect these lesions.
Predicting the molecular pathology that underlies neurodegeneration in patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is crucial to determine how to treat each individual. Whitwell and Josephs show how patterns of atrophy assessed on MRI can be used to identify signatures of pathology for each specific diagnosis within this broad spectrum of diseases. The authors discuss how these patterns of atrophy could be used as biomarkers of FTLD.