JNNP Podcast

Individual differences in our capacity to read other people’s emotions and to remember faces we have seen before are highly variable in the general population. Some people are super-recognizers; others have difficulty remembering their own family members. Such abilities are also highly heritable, implying our genetic makeup exerts an important influence. But what genes are involved in social perce...

Cognitive impairment is generally considered an important facet of the schizophrenia syndrome but how fundamental is it? In this podcast Alan Carson discusses the question with Eileen Joyce, Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. She argues that there is a limited general resource in schizophrenia that constrains the performance of a wide range of spe...

Exciting recent and forthcoming advances will impact on the surgical management of epilepsy in the near future. Mark Nowell and John Duncan, both Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Institute of Neurology, have conducted a review on where the treatment is headed, and discuss the three broad directions where they see the next major advances occurring. Read the full paper, for free...

Dr Robert Zivadinov, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, discusses his paper which aimed to identify MRI biomarkers associated with long-term disability progression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and to define the rate of evolution of global, tissue-specific and regional atrophy in patients with MS over long-term. Re...

Chis Butler, MRC Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the University of Oxford, talks to Jessica Eccles, MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, about her work into joint hypermobilty and autonomic hyperactivity, and their relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders. Read the abstract: http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/85/8/e3.40.abstract This podca...

Hugh Rickards, consultant in Neuropsychiatry and honorary reader in Neuropsychiatry at Birmingham University, talks to Georgy Pius, ST6 Trainee, North West Deanery, about his case-control study examining post-ictal psychosis. Read the abstract: http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/85/8/e3.39.abstract This podcast was recorded at the 2014 British NeuroPsychiatry Association AGM.

Chris Butler, MRC Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the University of Oxford, talks to Catherine Slattery, Clinical Research Associate, Institute of Neurology, about her work looking at TREM2 and associated risk of dementia. Read the abstract: http://goo.gl/SkJVXr This podcast was recorded at the 2014 British NeuroPsychiatry Association AGM.

This month, how to safely and ethically carry out stereotactic surgery for psychiatric illness. Bart Nuttin, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Leuven, has put together pragmatic guidelines, with the input of international psychiatric and neurosurgical societies. Here he gives us an overview. Read the guidelines in full: http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/85/9/1003.full

Does emotional stress trigger Parkinson's disease? Andrew Lees, Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, talks us through the evidence so far. And Glenda Halliday, Neuroscience Research Australia, and colleagues, have examined the clinical and pathological diagnostic implications of new criteria for frontotemporal dementia syndromes. She discusses the highlights. Read both the papers, f...

Julian Gold, professor in the department of neuroscience and trauma, Queen Mary, University of London, and senior staff specialist, Albion Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, discusses his paper which investigates whether or not HIV protects against developing MS. Read the paper, for free: HIV and lower risk of multiple sclerosis: beginning to unravel a mystery using a record-linked database...

JNNP editor Alan Carson asks Roland Zahn, senior clinical lecturer, King's College London, about the neuroanatomy of moral behaviour, particularly his work into the neural mechanism of moral emotion in depression. This podcast was recorded at the 2014 British NeuroPsychiatry Association AGM.

This month, genetic counselling for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Adriano Chiò, Turin ALS Expert Center, ‘Rita Levi Montalcini’ University of Turin, tells us what it can and can't do, who should have it, and how to go about it. And deep brain stimulation for essential tremor. Joseph Jankovic, Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, explains what...

Head injury is very common, and we know those admitted to hospital with a severe head injury have a high mortality rate in the proceeding year. However less is known about later mortality, and even less about late survival after mild head injury, which accounts for 95% of all head injuries. Tom McMillan, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, MVLS, University of Glasgow, and colleagues, have followed...

What's the role of the striatum, in changes in cognition and behaviour in neurodegeneration? Michael Hornberger, University of Cambridge, explains why it may be more pivotal than we currently think. And how best to support patients just diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, who are facing difficult decisions around their treatment? Sascha Köpke, University of Lübeck, discusses the results of his tria...

Angela Vincent, emeritus professor of neuroimmunology at the University of Oxford, gives Adam Zeman, professor of cognitive and behavioural neurology, University of Exeter, an overview of autoimmune disorders of the central nervous system. This podcast is one of several recorded with the British Neuropsychiatry Association, more of which will be published over the next few months. For all the podc...

Adam Zeman, professor of cognitive and behavioural neurology, University of Exeter, asks James Nicoll, professor of neuropathology, University of Southampton, about the progress being made in preventative treatments for Alzheimer's. For more on early treatment for Alzheimer's, watch Nick Fox's talk on presymptomatic treatment for the dementias on JNNP's YouTube channel: http://goo.gl/95sVXB Both t...

This month, an unusual variant of Guillain Barre syndrome - the pharyngeal cervical brachial variant. Benjamin Wakeley, a consultant neurologist at the Gloucester Hospitals NHS Foundation trust talks through what clinicians need to know. Also, a look at an uncommon but difficult to resolve complication of Parkinson’s disease therapy - that of dopamine dysregulation syndrome. Robert Cilia, from the...

Kieran O'Driscoll, consultant neuropsychiatrist in Liverpool, talks to David Okai, a consultant in psychological medicine in Oxford and researcher at King's College London, discusses assessing and managing impulse control disorder in Parkinson's. This podcast is one of several recorded with the British Neuropsychiatry Association, more of which will be published over the next few months. For all t...

February's JNNP is a neuropsychiatry special issue, with papers on a broad range of disorders which lie between neurology and psychiatry. Associate editor Alan Carson discusses the contents, and the thinking behind the edition. To accompany the issue, JNNP and the Association of British Neurologists convened a roundtable of experts to discuss, and advise on, diagnosing and treating functional symp...

When searching for clues to reach a diagnosis, neurologists often empathise with the detective who is trying to solve a case, write Peter Kempster and Andrew Lees in JNNP sister journal Practical Neurology bit.ly/1dqReQq. In this podcast, journal editor Phil Smith and Andrew Lees, director of the Queen Square Brain Bank in London, discuss how neurologists draw upon detective skills. They also talk...

This month, whole brain radiation vs radiosurgery for cerebral metastases. Does the former cause significantly more cognitive defects, and are any blanket, mopping up effects worth it? Clark Chen, vice chairman of neurosurgery, University of California San Diego, talks us through his review. And a clinical guide to the genetics of ischaemic stroke, from Pankaj Sharma, Imperial College Cerebrovascu...

Callum Duncan, neurologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, convenes a round table of experts to discuss advances in headache, particularly the pathophysiological understanding of cluster headache, managing cluster headache and migraine, and new onset chronic daily headache. Taking part are: Phillip Holland, postdoctoral researcher, Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, University of Edinburgh Manj...

This month, getting a handle on aggressive multiple sclerosis. Suresh Menon and Helen Tremlett, both from the Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, talk us through their recent step towards a definition of the disease. And Parkinson's patients who are disappointed after deep brain stimulation, despite gaining motor benefits and quality of life improvements. Catherine Lewis and Fr...

October's JNNP takes another step towards demystifying the relationship between sunlight, vitamin D, and MS, featuring a paper which reveals sun exposure may have direct effects on neurodegeneration independently of the vitamin. Murali Ramanathan, co-author of the study and professor of pharmaceutical sciences and neurology at the State University of New York at Buffalo, talks us through the resea...

Ralph Gregory, secretary for the Association of British Neurologists and consultant neurologist in Dorset, gets an update on neurogenetics research and implications for practice from Nick Wood, professor of clinical neurogenetics, Institute of Neurology. This podcast is one of a series produced in collaboration with the Association of British Neurologists, of which there will be more to come over...