In 1963, as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, I wrote a master's thesis on the antecedents of 1921 Kongo prophetism (ngunzisme, after the KiKongo for prophet, ngunza; "Kimbanguism," after the name of the most prominentfprophet, Simon Kimbangu). The thesis pieced together accounts of traditional and new urban cults which sought, through purification and initiation, to fashion an i...

UNLABELLED It is thought that a close relationship exists between auditory processing, the acoustic reflex and speech. AIM A retrospective study to evaluate these three aspects in children with and without phonological disorders and seek any relationship among them. MATERIAL METHODS 46 children were enrolled: 24 had normal speech abilities and 22 had phonological disorders. All children und...

Complex neurodevelopmental disorders, such as schizophrenia, autism, attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, (manic) depressive illness and addiction, are thought to result from an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Association studies on candidate genes and genome-wide linkage analyses have identified many susceptibility chromosomal regions and genes, but considerable e...

A general dynamical process model of psychiatric disorders is proposed that specifies the basic cognitive processes involved in the transition from beliefs about self, others and world that are normal and adaptive, to beliefs that are rigid, extreme, and maladaptive. The relevant thought trajectories are self-confirming, and are considered to underlie the corresponding trajectories in symptoms....

Movement disorders are a potential neurologic complication of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and may sometimes represent the initial manifestation of HIV infection. Dopaminergic dysfunction and the predilection of HIV infection to affect subcortical structures are thought to underlie the development of movement disorders such as parkinsonism in AIDS patients. In this review, we wil...

Several neurodegenerative disorders are associated with oxidative stress that is manifested by lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation and other markers. Included in these disorders in which oxidative stress is thought to play an important role in their pathogenesis are Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), tardive dyskinesia, Huntington's diseas...

Autism and Tourette syndrome are complex enigmatic disorders. Both are childhood neurological syndromes affecting behavior, social interaction, movement, and language. Like many complex disorders, autism and Tourette syndrome are thought to have complex genetic and environmental etiologies. Similarly, autoimmune and inflammatory (AI) disorders have complex multigenic and environmental origins. ...

The pedigrees of 192 subjects at risk of Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy, or balanced chromosome translocations attending three regional genetic clinics were inspected to identify relatives who were themselves at high risk of these disorders. Of the 342 relatives eligible for inclusion, 43% (63/147) of the register relatives and 26% (50/195) of the non-register relativ...