Muscle Disorders calls for papers / publications

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Journal of Neuropsychology: Cognitive Function in Parkinson’s Disease

In the last 10-20 years, there has been a growing body of literature relating to the cognitive impairments associated with Parkinson’s disease, including core cognitive processes such as recognition memory and attention, but more recently aspects of cognition such as prospective memory, decision-making and emotion recognition have also been explored. This research has moved beyond accounts of cognitive impairments in Parkinson’s, with implications for clinical management and real-life functioning for people with Parkinson’s. In addition to these important aspects, understanding the cognitive effects of Parkinson’s can illuminate normal function.

This special issue will comprise both reviews and empirical papers and cover a range of different cognitive processes in Parkinson’s including (but not limited to) reward, decision-making, memory, inhibition, hallucinations and action processing. Bringing together these topics and different approaches to the question of cognition in Parkinson’s will make for a thought-provoking and cutting edge special issue, which will be of interest to both basic scientists and clinicians.

Please send an email expression of interest to jnp@wiley.com, giving a brief outline of your proposed article prior to submission to the special issue. The closing date for submissions will be 30th June 2012.

Call for Papers for a Special Section of Behavioral Neuroscience on Parkinson's Disease

Motor and Non-Motor Dysfunctions in Parkinson's Disease: Advances and Controversies

Guest Editor: Alice Cronin-Golomb

Submission Deadline: June 1, 2012

Behavioral Neuroscience is seeking papers for a special section highlighting recent progress in our understanding of the motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's Disease (PD) and its subtypes.

PD is characterized by the cardinal motor symptoms of tremor, rigidity, akinesia or bradykinesia, and impairments of posture, gait, and balance, as well as less ubiquitous but nevertheless disabling motor abnormalities such as dyskinesias. The non-motor symptoms of PD have been receiving increased attention in recent years in acknowledgment of their significant impact on the quality of life of patients with this disorder. Examples of these symptoms include disturbances of cognition, sensation and perception, mood, motivation, behavioral inhibition, sleep, and autonomic function.

Much remains to be learned about the etiology, clinical presentation, course, treatment, and neurological substrates of these motor and non-motor symptoms. One approach to their investigation is consideration of PD subtypes. Subtypes that are currently being studied include side of disease onset or side of current symptom predominance, type of initial motor symptom (e.g., tremor, rigidity, disturbances of posture and gait), predominant cognitive profile (frontal-type, parietal-type, with or without dementia), gender, and presence or absence of specific genes (e.g., parkin, LRRK2, COMT, MAPT).

The special section will focus primarily on the relation of motor and non-motor symptoms of PD to disease subtypes. This section will provide an international forum for researchers to report their most recent findings in the area.

Topics to be covered may include, but are not limited to:

Motor symptoms, including tremor, rigidity, akinesia or bradykinesia, disturbances of posture, gait, and balance, dyskinesias
Cognition, including dementia as well as cognitive function in the absence of dementia
Sensation
Perception, from lower-level to higher-level processes, including hallucinations
Depression, anxiety, apathy, and other aspects of mood and motivation
Behavioral inhibition, including impulse control disorders
Sleep, including sleep quality and REM behavior disorder
Autonomic function
Prodromal appearance of non-motor symptoms
Pathological substrates
Relation to neurotransmitters or sex hormones

Manuscripts should be submitted as usual through the Behavioral Neuroscience Manuscript Submission Portal.

The cover letter should indicate that the authors wish the manuscript to be considered for publication in the special section on Parkinson's Disease. Reviewer suggestions are strongly encouraged.

Manuscripts must be received by June 1, 2012.

Inquiries can be directed to the Guest Editor, Alice Cronin-Golomb.