2018 comment: The hippocampus and behaviour in MS

[jimmylegs]

The hippocampus and behaviour in multiple sclerosis
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lane ... S1474-4422(18%2930324-7/fulltext

In their Personal View in The Lancet Neurology, Maria Rocca and colleagues 1 have undertaken a detailed and comprehensive review of the role of the hippocampus in patients with multiple sclerosis. Although their focus on this pivotal brain region touches on the genetics, epigenetics, immune dysregulation, and biochemistry that drive neuropathological changes, their review is weighted towards findings from the considerable advances in MRI scanning techniques that have led to new insights in our understanding of brain–behaviour relationships. They also underscore numerous gaps in knowledge, and leave hanging tantalising possibilities that should stimulate rehabilitation specialists in their search for symptom stabilisation and, potentially, remediation. In doing so, Rocca and colleagues look well beyond the data for multiple sclerosis, borrowing from findings of studies of stroke, psychiatry, dementia, and healthy ageing. Indeed, it could be persuasively argued that when it comes to the hippocampus, multiple sclerosis researchers are late to the research table, a likely consequence of long-held views of the condition as a quintessential white matter disease.