I wish that I could claim this zombie idea as my own, but sadly, I'm just not that creative and I feel strongly that I should always give credit where credit is due. Although he was not the first person to conceive the idea, a neurologist at the University of Virginia led a brilliant Grand Rounds about Zombie Neuroanatomy a few years ago that really got my wheels turning. So here I am presenting my own version of this topic in blog-form. Long before this particular neurologis

What do Robin Williams and sleep disorders have in common? Answer: Lewy bodies. According to recent news reports, Robin Williams was found to have diffuse Lewy body disease. Lewy bodies are abnormal clumps of microscopic proteins that can be discovered in the brain during an autopsy or biopsy. Their specific location in the brain often determines the presentation of symptoms that we might observe when a person is still living, such as unusual sleep activity, problems with bal

Can you remember the first time that you flew in an airplane? How about the first time that you drove a car? Or what about the first day of your job? These events all have at least two things in common. By using the word “first” in my descriptions, I have hinted that they were once novel experiences, things that you had never done before. And the other commonality is that they provoked at least some degree of anxiety. As I mentioned last week, anxiety is a perfectly normal re

As we enter the month of October, let's change gears from the topic of memory loss and dementia and focus for a moment on anxiety disorders instead. After all, Halloween is just around the corner and with this holiday comes a deluge of horror movies, scary costumes, and other fear-provoking stimuli. As a matter of fact, a news report was released in south Florida just the other night that warned parents of a "creepy clown" threat- an Instagram post that pictured a clown with