Welcome to this new issue of the ACNR, and I apologise at the outset to the more basic scientific readers as this issue has more of a clinical slant than previous issues - but don't worry: the more basic scientific topics will
appear. It remains to put basic research into some sort of clinical context.

Indeed this need to bridge the gap between basic neuroscientific research and clinical neurology lay at the heart of the decision to develop this new journal, which is now nearly 2 years old, and remains its primary aim. This becomes an increasingly urgent mission. Unknown to many, the annual Neuroscience for Clinicians meeting in Cambridge, organised by Alastair Compston and sponsored by Brain, was cancelled this year because of a lack of interest. In the previous 11 years of its existence, there would always have been an over-subscription of young neurologists for the maximum 70 places on this superb course of lectures by eminent neuroscientists, including a handful of Nobel laureates. This year however, only 40 people were sufficiently inter-ested in neuroscience to ask for a place on the course. This highlights the real danger that is facing clinical neuroscience, a discipline that is fast approaching extinction in the UK, under the relentless pressure to make doctors become service providers in the shortest possible training period.

The importance of research as a part of all neurologists’ training is becoming
increasingly marginalised and regarded as a non-essential part of their education, which thus undermines those who do try to carry on with clinical
research - especially those that try to take the laboratory to the clinic. This began with Calman training and has accelerated in recent years. UK clinical neuroscience is now on the critical list. So for those thinking about whether to go into research, then I plea that you carry on, because there is a real risk that in the UK such a person will become a collectors item!

Anyway, in this issue we have an example of how laboratory based research can inform clinical practice and vice versa. Jurg Kesselring, one of the modern pioneers of neurorehabilitation, discusses the relevance of rehabilitation to recovery in MS, highlighting the paucity of studies in this area. However, he does point out that plasticity is an integral part of the adult CNS and that this should be exploited. Indeed this is an area that could be massive in the future given the recent findings of the capabilities of adult neural precursor cells to repair ischaemic brain lesions (see Journal
Reviews), and the establishment by the MRC and other organisations to set
up a UK stem cell bank (Meena & Rosser this issue).

We then have a new type of article from Russell & Jones about the growing
role of patient organisations in the development of clinical services.This
has proven critical in MS as well as a range of other conditions, for example
the development of Parkinson's disease specialist nurses and the Huntington’s and Motor Neuron Disease supportive services in the community. This is clearly an important topic and again is an area of development as the patients voice becomes more clearly heard, and the demands and services that the NHS can offer comes under closer scrutiny.

We also have a gem of a review article by Wojtek Rakowicz on inherited myopathies - an area that has changed dramatically in recent years as the gene defects underlying these conditions become increasingly recognised. We also have a cracking anatomy primer on the optic nerve and our usual clutch of journal reviews, conference reports and book reviews. Finally, we have an excellent article by Peter Misra on botulinum toxin in drooling - expanding the repertoire for this therapeutic agent, even though the use of
it was first suggested about 180 years ago!!

So there we have it, another issue which we hope that you will find interesting and provocative, but if there are topics you would like to see covered then do let us know and we will see what we can do.

Roger Barker
AdvancesinCNR@aol.com