Neurology

Neurology is a medical subspeciality, responsible for diagnosis and treatment of all disorders of the central nervous system, the peripheral nervous system and the muscles.

Stroke and brain plasiticity

One of my clinincal and research interests is brain plasticity and recovery of brain function after stroke. The brain is shaped by experience, training, degeneration and injuries throughout the life. This is most remarkable because an old neurological dogma stated that the brain, in contrast to other organs, loses its ability to adapt in adulthood. Extensive research during the last two decades, however, provided overwhelming evidence that even the adult brain can reorganize in terms of structure and functional networks. The advent of non-invasive neuroimaging now allows us to demonstrate brain reorganization in the living human brain regarding the location and the timing of neural events (Neuroimage 2003;19:1787-801). There are, nevertheless, limits of brain reorganization. In patients with unilateral damage of the auditory cortex, processing in the intact, contralateral auditory cortex is not different from healthy controls (Neurology 2006;67:1059-1061).

Stroke rehabilitation
Sörös P. Depression, Dementia and Neglect: Obstacles for Rehabilitation in Stroke. Presentation at the Annual Convention of the South Carolina Speech and Hearing Association, Columbia, SC, February 2010. PDF Presentation | PDF Handout

Cluster headache

A second clinical and research focus is the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of primary headaches, in particular cluster headache. When treating a patient who developed cluster headache shortly after the enucleation of an eye (Cephalalgia. 1997;17:680-2), I started a study on the incidence of primary headache in patients after the removal of an eye. This retrospective, questionnaire-based study did not provide evidence that primary headaches are more prevalent in patients after the removal of the eye vs. healthy controls (BMC Neurology 2005;5:6). However, the study demonstrated that many patients suffer from phantom sensations and phantom pain in the removed eye (Neurology 2003;60:1542-3). This condition is termed phantom eye syndrome.

Neurological examination

The neurological examination is the core of neurological diagnosis, even in times of widely available neuroimaging such as MRI and CT.

The neurological examination: Cranial nerves, motor system, sensory system. Videos presented by the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine.

An interactive online guide to the Neurologic Examination with video demonstrations by Hal Blumber, Yale University.

The neurological exam in videos, presented by the University of California San Francisco.

Further reading

Brain Facts. A primer on the brain and neurological disorders, published by the Society for Neuroscience.

Ropper AH and Brown RH. Adams and Victor’s Principles of Neurology. 8th ed. McGraw-Hill 2005.

Blumenfeld H. Neuroanatomy Through Clinical Cases. Sinauer 2001.