Paramagnetic rim lesions are common in pediatric MS and are linked to greater lesion burden and gray matter atrophy.
Background and Objectives.
Category: neuroscience – Page 110
CAR-T cell therapy for cancer causes ‘brain fog,’ Stanford Medicine-led study shows
Cancer treatment with a cell-based immunotherapy causes mild cognitive impairment, a Stanford Medicine team found. They also identified compounds that could treat it.
V-STARS pioneers neuroscience at ESA’s Orbital Robotics Lab
As part of the ESA Academy Experiments Programme, Team V-STARS carried out the first experiment with human participants in the Orbital Robotics Lab, investigating how microgravity affects the perception of verticality.
The V-STARS team, a collaboration between Birkbeck, University of London, and the University of Kent (UK), was selected to join the ESA Academy Experiments Programme in February 2025. After obtaining ethical approval from the United Kingdom and authorisation from the ESA Medical Board, the team was permitted to carry out their experiment in the Orbital Robotics Lab (ORL), located at ESTEC, the ESA site in the Netherlands.
The campaign involved test subjects seated on the ORL’s floating platform, wearing VR headsets while performing gravity-related perceptual tasks. The project investigates the use of Vestibular Stochastic Resonance — a phenomenon in which controlled noise enhances the sensitivity of a sensory system — to improve perception and potentially accelerate adaptation to microgravity. Over two weeks, the team tested more than 20 participants and has now returned to their universities to analyse the results.
Video NeuroImage: Stereotypic Motor Behaviors in a Patient With Pantothenate Kinase–Associated Neurodegeneration
A 24-year-old woman with pantothenate kinase–associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) presented with a 5-year history of psychiatric symptoms followed by prominent stereotypic motor behaviors, including repetitive touching of her mouth and leg, object manipulation, and tip-toe walking (Video 1). Examination revealed severe depression and anxiety, mild speech dysfluency, and the stereotypic movements. Previous symptomatic treatments provided limited benefit. Brain magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated the pathognomonic “eye-of-the-tiger” sign, indicative of iron deposition in the bilateral globus pallidus (Figure). Genetic testing identified compound heterozygous variants in the PANK2 gene: a known pathogenic variant (c.401AG) and a novel likely pathogenic variant (c.1465CG).
