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.
