Faculty Bibliography

Guillain-Barré Syndrome is a popular eponym that comes from a 1916 paper by Drs. Guillain, Barré, and Strohl. These physicians described two soldiers in the French Sixth Army during World War I who developed acute progressive motor weakness. Although Drs. Guillain and Barré have continued to be included in the syndrome's eponym, Dr. Strohl has been forgotten despite having strongly contributed to the original paper. The reasons previously mentioned for Dr. Strohl's absence appear trivial in contemporary practice and thus, his name deserves to be reintroduced to Guillain-Barré-Strohl Syndrome.

Background:Action observation (AO) relies on the mirror neuron system (MNS) and has been proposed as a rehabilitation tool in Parkinson's disease (PD), in particular for gait disorder such as freezing of gait (FOG). In this study, we aimed to explore the brain functional correlates of the observation of human gait in PD patients with (FOG+) and without (FOG-) FOG and to investigate a possible relationship between AO-induced brain activation and gait performance. Methods:Fifty-four participants were enrolled in the study (15 PD FOG+; 18 PD FOG-; 21 healthy subjects (HS)) which consisted of two tasks in two separate days: (i) gait assessment and (ii) task-fMRI during AO of gait. Differences between patients with PD (FOG+ and FOG-) and HS were assessed at the level of behavioral and functional analysis. Results:. Patients with PD present a reduced functional activity during AO of gait, especially if FOG+. A baseline knowledge of the neural correlates of AO of gait in the clinical routine "on" status would help for the design of future AO rehabilitative interventions.