Welcome to another issue of ACNR, and a rather visual theme with articles on eye movements, visual hallucinations and an interview with the new chief executive of the MRC – Professor Colin Blakemore, a pioneer in the field of visual system development.

In the review articles in this issue, we have Dominic Ffytche taking us through the complex world of visual hallucinations and illusion disorders, whilst the current ABN president, Chris Kennard, treats us to a learned, yet pragmatic, discussion of involuntary eye movement oscillations – primarily nystagmus.

In his article Dr Dominic Ffytche sets out to define what the patient means with these visual aberrations, before discussing how this relates to aetiological causes. This is a very interesting and rather neglected area of neuroscience, and helps delineate the neurobiological principles of how extrastriate areas relate to V1 and the evolution of visual phenomena. For the more practically minded there is also an excellent section on management.

In his article Professor Chris Kennard discusses the different types of nystagmus as well as saccadic oscillations. For those of you who have grappled with this topic and the significance of these different types of eye movement, this article is enormously helpful. Often this subject is presented in a rather complex and sterile fashion, baffling the reader with detailed neurophysiological and neuroanatomical studies, that often leave the novice more confused than when they started. However, in this article the subject is succinctly laid out with the definition, aetiology and possible therapies for each of these different abnormalities of eye movements being presented in a simple understandable way. It is an article of great clarity and I really hope that you enjoy and learn as much from it as I did.

We are also fortunate to have an excellent review of posterior circulation vascular syndrome from one of the worlds leading authorities on this Professor Bogousslavsky along with his co-author Dr Piechowski-Jowiak. This article sets our beautifully the anatomy of this vascular system and then discusses the aetiology and clinical presentations of abnormlaities within it, with clear radiographic illustrations of what is being discussed.

We also have an interview with Professor Colin Blakemore, which hopefully answers some of those questions that have been troubling you – especially given the recent UK government report about the MRC and their funding history and strategy. Already it seems that Professor Blakemore has made his mark, with his desire to get out and meet the scientific/clinical community and his overhaul and simplification of the MRC grant system.

The management topic on dystonia concludes our series on movement disorders and I would like to thank all those who contributed, especially David Burn in Newcastle. Our final topic is dystonia and is covered superbly by Dr Mark Edwards and Kailash Bhatia. This article, in the spirit of the series, sets out to tackle dystonia in a pragmatic fashion moving from definitions, to aetiology, investigation and ultimately treatment. This account clearly reflects a vast experience of dealing with this disorder and through Dr Kailash Bhatia we also have access to the invaluable contributions that the late David Marsden brought to this field. In the next issue our new management topic is neurosurgery for the non-neurosurgeon, with Mr Peter Whitfield providing the inspiration for these articles.

We also welcome the first of a new series of articles on cognitive neurology – to replace our previous sections on anatomy, radiology and more recently neurophysiology. In this series we will discuss how to define, assess, investigate and treat a range of cognitive disorders starting in this issue with Andrew Larner on delirium.

In addition we have an especially interesting article on the preliminary data on the clinical use of microstimulators to facilitate upper limb function in patients with hemiplegia. This is an exciting new development which shows the extent to which modern technology can be used for clinical advantage, and the way in which rehabilitation medicine is forging ahead by embracing new technological advances.

Finally we have an excellent short paper from a member of our international editorial board, Professor Stefan, on the role of MEG in the management of epilepsy. In addition we have all our usual regular features. So that’s it for another issue, with the promise of much to come through a range of new series of articles, including neuropathology spearheaded by Professor Roy Weller.

Roger Barker
AdvancesinCNR@aol.com