Encephalitic Arboviruses of Africa: Emergence, Clinical Presentation and Neuropathogenesis

Many mosquito-borne viruses (arboviruses) are endemic in Africa, contributing to systemic and neurological infections in various geographical locations on the continent. While most arboviral infections do not lead to neuroinvasive diseases of the central nervous system, neurologic diseases caused by arboviruses include flaccid paralysis, meningitis, encephalitis, myelitis, encephalomyelitis, neuritis, and post-infectious autoimmune or memory disorders. Here we review endemic members of the Flaviviridae and Togaviridae families that cause neurologic infections, their neuropathogenesis and host neuroimmunological responses in Africa. We also discuss the potential for neuroimmune responses to aide in the development of new diagnostics and therapeutics, and current knowledge gaps to be addressed by arbovirus research.

Transforming Education Using Virtual Reality: Geriatrics Clerkship Before and During Pandemic

Since 2006, the Georgetown University School of Medicine has offered a two-week elective in Geriatrics for third-year medical students. Students rotate through diverse clinical experiences, including general geriatrics, geriatric neurology, physical medicine & rehabilitation, memory disorders, Parkinson’s and dementia, and palliative care. In addition, students learn about arts, humanities & ethics, communication skills, and taking the patient’s perspective. In Fall 2019, pre-pandemic, we added virtual reality (VR) experiences focused on hearing & vision loss, Alzheimer’s disease, and end-of-life conversations created by Embodied Labs. Curricular goals included increasing students’ empathy and sensitivity, decreasing ageism & stereotyping, and increasing clinical knowledge. Findings suggest regardless of pandemic (pre vs. during) or modality (in-person vs. Zoom) that after participating in the VR labs, students are slightly more comfortable taking care of older adult patients with dementia as well as hearing & vision loss, and participating in end-of-life conversations.

Memory Disorders Related to Hippocampal Function: The Interest of 5-HT4Rs Targeting

The hippocampus has long been considered as a key structure for memory processes. Multilevel alterations of hippocampal function have been identified as a common denominator of memory impairments in a number of psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. For many years, the glutamatergic and cholinergic systems have been the main targets of therapeutic treatments against these symptoms. However, the high rate of drug development failures has left memory impairments on the sideline of current therapeutic strategies. This underscores the urgent need to focus on new therapeutic targets for memory disorders, such as type 4 serotonin receptors (5-HT4Rs). Ever since the discovery of their expression in the hippocampus, 5-HT4Rs have gained growing interest for potential use in the treatment of learning and memory impairments. To date, much of the researched information gathered by scientists from both animal models and humans converge on pro-mnesic and anti-amnesic properties of 5-HT4Rs activation, although the mechanisms at work require more work to be fully understood. This review addresses a fundamental, yet poorly understood set of evidence of the potential of 5-HT4Rs to re-establish or limit hippocampal alterations related to neurological diseases. Most importantly, the potential of 5-HT4Rs is translated by refining hypotheses regarding the benefits of their activation in memory disorders at the hippocampal level.

Syndromes of Cognitive Dysfunction

Cognitive function refers to the mental process of knowing things. It includes high-level cortical functions such as memory, language, perception, and executive function (planning, initiating, and reasoning) that generally depend on the alert state and focused attention. Dysfunction of cognition without a change in consciousness may result in various disorders, including aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, executive dysfunction, and memory disorders such as dementia and amnesia. Transient dysfunction of cognition associated with a change in level of consciousness or attention may be due to delirium or confusional states. This chapter broadly introduces the specific definitions of cognitive dysfunction and the overall differential diagnoses.

Eduard Gamper (1887–1938): cases and accidents

Eduard Gamper (1887–1938) was Head of the Department of Neuropsychiatry at the Charles University’s German Faculty of Medicine in Prague. He had trained in Innsbruck, where he undertook groundbreaking work on the midbrain in an anencephalic child and in a series of patients who had died from Wernicke’s encephalopathy. Gamper identified the mamillary bodies as key in the performance of declarative memory. Considered an expert in memory disorders, he was chosen by the Medical Faculty in Innsbruck to provide expert opinion on the notorious case of Philipp Halsmann, who was suspected of murdering his father. Details of the case remained unresolved and Gamper’s opinion caused both professional and political controversy. When in Prague, Gamper made great efforts to improve patient care and clinical services, establishing a special ward for patients with neurological conditions. This task was not nearly completed, when he and his wife died after their car drove over a cliff into the Walchensee in Bavaria. Rumours surrounded his death: that Gamper had just examined Adolf Hitler; that he was a political victim; that the Gestapo were behind the accident. After an investigation of the available evidence, we can report that an unusual 22 cm of snow fell in the area of the Walchensee on April 20, 1938, the day of the Gampers’ deaths. We were unable to find any evidence for foul play in what appears to have been a tragic accident.

Elderly Sexual Abuse

In recent years, thanks to rapidly developing medicine, it is becoming possible to detect, treat and diagnose diseases that for many decades were considered incurable. Consequently, we are dealing with a significant increase in life expectancy and a rapid increase in the number of the elderly in the society in recent years. As the statistics show, this number will increase even more in the coming years, so there is a need to pay attention to this social group. Elderly people, especially those living alone and suffering from cognitive and memory disorders that accompany Alzheimer's disease, are a group particularly vulnerable to various forms of violence. In Polish literature on the subject and in the media, much attention is paid to the physical, mental and financial form of abuse. Sexual abuse is not mentioned at all in the context of this social group, which does not mean that it does not exist. This situation is often caused by stereotypes according to which, the elderly are asexual and not attractive enough to be victims of sexual violence. This article pays attention to the definitions of sexual abuse against the elderly, the scale of the problem, risk factors for this form of violence or its consequences, including: physiological-somatic, psychological-emotional, sexual and socio-cognitive ones. The last part of the text is devoted to prevention of sexual violence among the elderly.

Clinical Study of Memory Disorders in Aging Patients and Associated Pathology

We have observed semantic memory and episodic memory disorders in patients ranging from 40 to 92 years-old (100%), with associated cardiovascular diseases and blood hypertension (82%), sleep disorders (50%), neurobehavioral disorders (44%), such as depression, anxiety, aggression, and vascular demencia, disorders of language (36%), neurosensory disorders (28%), as diminution of visual and hearing acuity, dizziness (26%), Parkinson disease (34%), Alzheimer disease (21%), gait disturbances (10%), vertigo (10%), cervicalgia and cervicogenic headache (10%) trigeminal neuralgia (2%), We found as comorbidities the following non-nervous diseases: metabolic diseases as diabetes (21%) and hypothyroidism (5%), gastrointestinal pathology (21%), such as constipation, loss of sphincter control, and gastritis, arthritis (13%), prostatic hypertrophy (1%) and loss of weight (1%). A detailed discussion of every pathological condition is provided.

Head Injury Exposure in Veterans Presenting to Memory Disorders Clinic: An Observational Study of Clinical Characteristics and Relationship of Event-Related Potentials and Imaging Markers

Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and repetitive head impacts (RHI) related to blasts or contact sports are commonly reported among military service members. However, the clinical implications of remote TBI and RHI in veterans remains a challenge when evaluating older veterans at risk of neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). This study aimed to test the hypothesis that veterans in a memory disorders clinic with remote head injury would be more likely to have neurodegenerative clinical diagnoses, increased rates of amyloid PET positivity, higher prevalence of cavum septum pellucidi/vergae, and alterations in event-related potential (ERP) middle latency auditory evoked potentials (MLAEPs) and long latency ERP responses compared to those without head injuries.Methods: Older veterans aged 50–100 were recruited from a memory disorders clinic at VA Boston Healthcare system with a history of head injury (n = 72) and without head injury history (n = 52). Patients were classified as reporting prior head injury including TBI and/or RHI exposure based on self-report and chart review. Participants underwent MRI to determine presence/absence of cavum and an ERP auditory oddball protocol.Results: The head injury group was equally likely to have a positive amyloid PET compared to the non-head injury group. Additionally, the head injury group were less likely to have a diagnosis of a neurodegenerative condition than those without head injury. P200 target amplitude and MLAEP amplitudes for standard and target tones were decreased in the head injury group compared to the non-head injury group while P3b amplitude did not differ.Conclusions: Veterans with reported remote head injury evaluated in a memory disorders clinic were not more likely to have a neurodegenerative diagnosis or imaging markers of neurodegeneration than those without head injury. Decreased P200 target and MLAEP target and standard tone amplitudes in the head injury group may be relevant as potential diagnostic markers of remote head injury.