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VA researchers share findings Diane Chun SUN MEDICAL WRITER [log in to unmask] The work focused on understanding the human brain. A trio of researchers offered a peek at the inner workings of the human brain Monday during the annual research day at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Gainesville. Dr. Lewis Baxter is chief of the psychiatry service for the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System. Baxter is taking advantage of recent advances in positron emission tomographic (or PET) imaging to view biochemical changes as they are happening within the living brain. Up until now, PET imaging has been used most frequently to detect cancer that has metastasized to distant sites in the body. Baxter sees the advantages of applying the same technology to monitor the success of gene therapy, for example. A new gene or genes could be inserted into a specific area of the brain to "kick up the amount in there," Baxter said. Trace amounts of a potential drug to treat conditions such as Parkinson's disease could be tracked to see how the drug is distributed and taken up by different parts of the brain. Researcher Bruce Crosson is exploring the changes in the brain after a stroke or other brain injury, which can often leave patients incapable of choosing and saying the right words to express what they are seeing or feeling. Crosson, staff psychologist with the Brain Rehabilitation Research Center, is also a professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida. In Crosson's research, he has tried "priming" the brain's initiation mechanism in picture-naming trials. When patients are shown a picture on a computer screen, they have to open a box at the left side of the computer and press a button before naming the object shown. The goal is to reorganize the brain's language-finding systems, found primarily on the left side of the brain, so that the right side takes over the same function. "With a better understanding of these mechanisms, we can design more effective treatments for rehabilitation," Crosson said. Dr. Chris Sackellares, a professor of neurology, also looks ahead to a more effective form of treatment - in this case, for epilepsy - as a result of his studies. In spite of major advances in pharmacology, neuroimaging, clinical neurophysiology and neurosurgery, Sackellares said, many patients remain disabled due to uncontrolled seizures. His research group has closely studied electroencephalograms, or EEGs, taken in epileptic patients before and during seizures. Their findings indicate that the EEG shows a clearly identifiable pre-seizure pattern up to an hour before the seizure itself occurs. In a collaboration between the VA Medical Center, the University of Florida and Arizona State University's Brain Dynamics Laboratory, the group has developed an automated, computer-based system designed to predict and warn of an impending seizure. Nationally, 70 percent of VA researchers are practicing physicians, and their dual roles allow rapid application of research results to patient care - a concept known as "bench to bedside," as Sackellares pictures with his seizure prediction monitor. Diane Chun can be reached at 374-5041 or chund@ gvillesun.com. Tom Berdine President Young Onset Parkinson's Association(YOPA) www.yopa.org Founder YoungParkinsons.com www.YoungParkinsons.com Diagnosed in 2000 @ 33 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.471 / Virus Database: 269 - Release Date: 4/10/2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn