January 10 2012 Issue

1) MRI cortical thickness biomarker and 2) Topic of the month: Ethics Issues. This podcast for the Neurology Journal begins and closes with Dr. Robert Gross, Editor-in-Chief, briefly discussing highlighted articles from the print issue of Neurology. In the second segment Dr. Jeff Burns interviews Dr. Brad Dickerson about his paper on the MRI cortical thickness biomarker. In the next segment, Dr. Stacey Clardy is reading our e-Pearl of the week about the empty delta sign. In the next part of the podcast Dr. Alberto Espay interviews Dr. Tony Lang about placebo use for psychgenic disorders. Over the next three weeks, we will have additional interviews regarding ethic issues. The participants had nothing to disclose except Drs. Dickerson, Clardy, Espay and Lang.Dr. Dickerson serves on the editorial board of Hippocampus; serves as a consultant for Pfizer Inc; and receives research support from the NIH and the Alzheimer's Association.Dr. Clardy serves on the editorial team for the Neurology® Resident and Fellow Section. Dr. Espay serves/has served on scientific advisory boards for Boehringer Ingelheim, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Abbott; has received honoraria from Novartis, the American Academy of Neurology, and the Movement Disorders Society; serves on the editorial board of The European Neurological Journal; serves/has served on the speakers' bureaus for Novartis and UCB; and receives/has received research support from Medtronic, Inc., Allergan, Inc., CleveMed, the University of Cincinnati, the Davis Phinney Foundation, and the Michael J Fox Foundation, and is funded by the KL2 Research Scholars mentored career development award, the NIH Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Award (RR026315-02). Dr. Lang has served on scientific advisory boards for Abbott, Allon Therapeutics, Inc., Biovail Corporation, Boerhinger Ingelheim, Cephalon, Inc., Ceregene, Eisai Inc., Medtronic, Inc. Lundbeck Inc., NeuroMolecular Pharmaceuticals , Novartis, Merck Serono, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc., TaroPharma, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.; has received speaker honoraria from GlaxoSmithKline and UCB; receives/has received research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the National Parkinson Foundation, and the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre; and has served as an expert witness in cases related to the welding industry.