Categories: Neurological disorders | Medicine stubs The Human Nervous System The nervous system of a human coordinates the activity of the muscles, monitors the organs, constructs and also stops input from the senses, and initiates actions. ... Pathology (from Greek pathos, feeling, pain, suffering; and logos, study of; see also -ology) is the study of the processes underlying disease and other forms of illness, harmful abnormality, or dysfunction. ... Meningitis is the inflammation of the protective membranes covering the central nervous system, known collectively as the meninges. ... Encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain, commonly caused by a viral infection. ... Myelitis is a human disease involving swelling of the spinal cord, which disrupts central nervous system functions linking brain and limbs. ... Encephalomyelitis is a general term for inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, describing a number of disorders: acute disseminated encephalomyelitis or postinfectious encephalomyelitis, a demyelinating disease of the brain and spinal cord, possibly triggered by vaccination or viral infection; encephalomyelitis disseminata, a synonym for multiple sclerosis; equine encephalomyelitis, a... Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is an immune mediated disease of brain. ... Tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) is an infection of the spinal cord by Human T-lymphotropic virus resulting in paraparesis or weakness of the legs. ... Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is a genetic disease with multiple types, each of which could be considered a disease in its own right. ... Friedreichs ataxia is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by a mutation in Gene X25 that codes for frataxin, located on chromosome 9. ... Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) (Boder-Sedgwick syndrome or Louis-Bar syndrome) is a primary immunodeficiency disorder that occurs in an estimated incidence of 1 in 40,000 to 1 in 300,000 births (Lederman, 2000). ... Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), also called familial spastic paraparesis (FSP), refers to a group of inherited disorders that are characterized by progressive weakness and stiffness of the legs. ... Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a term applied to a number of different disorders, all having in common a genetic cause and the manifestation of weakness due to loss of the motor neurons of the spinal cord and brainstem. ... Werdnig-Hoffman disease (or Infantile spinal muscular atrophy, type I) is an autosomal recessive muscular disease. ... Fazio Londe Syndrome is an inherited motor neuron disease found in children and young adults. ... Kugelberg-Welander disease (or juvenile spinal muscular atrophy, type III) is an autosomal recessive muscular disease. ... The motor neurone diseases (MND) are a group of progressive neurological disorders that destroy motor neurones, the cells that control voluntary muscle activity such as speaking, walking, breathing, and swallowing. ... Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a disease marked by gradual degeneration of the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. ... Primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) is a rare neuromuscular disease characterized by progressive muscle weakness in the voluntary muscles. ... Progressive bulbar palsy is a form of motor neuron disease characterized by dysfunction of the muscles controlled by the cranial nerves of the lower brain stem (the bulb) -- specifically, the glossopharyngeal nerve (IX), vagus nerve (X), and hypoglossal nerve (XII). ... Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a life-threatening, neurological disorder most often caused by an adverse reaction to neuroleptic or antipsychotic drugs. ... This disease is believed to have been caused by a viral illness, stimulating degeneration of the nerve cells in the substantia nigra, leading to clinical parkinsonism. ... PKAN: Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration Symptoms Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) is one of many forms of neurodegeneration, or brain deterioration . ... Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (or the Steele-Richardson-Olszweski syndrome, after the Canadian physicians who described it in 1963 ) is a rare degenerative disorder involving the gradual deterioration and death of selected neurons in the brain. ... Striatonigral degeneration refers to a form of multiple system atrophy involving the loss of connections between two areas of the brain, the striatum and the substantia nigra, which work together to ensure smooth movement and maintain balance. ... Dystonia (literally, abnormal muscle tone) is a generic term used to describe a neurological movement disorder involving involuntary, sustained muscle contractions. ... Torticollis, or wry neck, is a condition in which the head is tilted toward one side, and the chin is elevated and turned toward the opposite side. ... Meiges syndrome is a type of dystonia, also known as oral facial dystonia or hemifacial spasm, the main symptoms of which involve involuntary blinking and chin thrusting. ... A blepharospasm (from blepharo (eyelid) and spasm (uncontrolled muscle contraction)) is any abnormal tic or twitch of the eyelid. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Myoclonus is brief, involuntary twitching of a muscle or a group of muscles. ... Restless legs syndrome (RLS, or Wittmaack-Ekboms syndrome) is poorly understood, often misdiagnosed, and believed to be a neurological disorder. ... Stiff person syndrome (SPS) (or occasionally, stiff-man syndrome) is a rare neurologic disorder of unknown etiology. ... Central pontine myelinolysis is a neurologic disease caused by severe damage of the myelin sheath of nerve cells in the brainstem, more precisely in the area termed the pons. ... This article is about the medical term, epileptic seizure, as distinct from psychogenic non-epileptic seizure. ... Tonic-clonic seizures (also known as Grand Mal Seizures) are a type of generalised seizure affecting the whole brain. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Focal seizures. ... Complex partial seizures are epileptic attacks which involve a greater degree of impairment of consciousness than simple partial seizures. ... In medicine, there are many kinds of generalized seizures. ... Atonic seizures (also called drop seizures, drop attacks, or akinetic seizures), are a minor type of seizure. ... Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), also known as Lennox syndrome, is a difficult to treat form of childhood-onset epilepsy, that most often appears between the second and sixth year of life and is characterized by frequent seizures and different seizure types and is often accompanied by mental retardation and behavior... West syndrome, otherwise known as infantile spasms, is an uncommon to rare and serious form of epilepsy in infants. ... Epilepsia partialis continua is a rare type of recurrent motor epileptic seizures that are focal (hands and face), and recur every few seconds or minutes for extended periods (days or years). ... A headache is a condition of pain in the head; sometimes neck or upper back pain may also be interpreted as a headache. ... Cluster headaches are rare, extremely painful and debilitating headaches that occur in groups or clusters. ... A vascular headache is a headache where blood vessel swelling or disturbance is causing the pain. ... Tension headaches, which were recently renamed tension-type headaches by the International Headache Society, are the most common type of headaches. ... Amaurosis fugax is a type of transient ischaemic attack (TIA). ... Fovilles syndrome is caused by the blockage of the perforating branches of the basilar artery in the region of the brainstem known as the pons. ... Millard-Gubler syndrome is a syndrome of unilateral softening of the brain tissue arising from obstruction of the blood vessels of the pons, involving the sixth and seventh cranial nerves and fibers of the corticospinal tract, and is associated with paralysis of the abducens (including diplopia, internal strabismus, and loss... Lateral medullary syndrome (also called Wallenbergs syndrome) is a disease in which the patient has difficulty with swallowing or speaking or both owing to one or more patches of dead tissue (known as an infarct) caused by interrupted blood supply to parts of the brain. ... Webers Syndrome (superior alternating hemiplegia) is characterized by the presence of an oculomotor nerve palsy and contralateral hemiparesis or hemiplegia. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Hypersomnia, also known as excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), is excessive amount of sleepiness. ... Sleep apnea or sleep apnoea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. ... Narcolepsy is a neurological condition most characterized by Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS). ... Cataplexy is a medical condition which often affects people who have narcolepsy, a disorder whose principal signs are EDS (Excessive Daytime Sleepiness), sleep attacks, and disturbed nighttime sleep. ... Trigeminal neuralgia, or Tic Douloureux, is a neuropathic disorder of the trigeminal nerve that causes episodes of intense pain in the eyes, lips, nose, scalp, forehead, and jaw. ... Bells palsy (facial palsy) is characterised by facial drooping on the affected half, due to malfunction of the facial nerve (VII cranial nerve), which controls the muscles of the face. ... Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) consists of a group of distinct disorders that affect the nerves in the brachial plexus (nerves that pass into the arms from the neck) and various nerves and blood vessels between the base of the neck and axilla (armpit). ... This article is about the syndrome. ... Mononeuropathy (or mononeuritis) is a type of neuropathy that only affects a single peripheral or cranial nerve. ... This article is about the medical condition. ... Meralgia paraesthetica or meralgia paresthetica (see spelling differences) (me-ral-gee-a par-es-thet-i-ka) is numbness or pain in the outer thigh not caused by injury to the thigh, but by injury to a nerve that extends from the thigh to the spinal column. ... Tarsal tunnel syndrome is a painful foot condition in which the tibial nerve is impinged and compressed as it travels though the tarsal tunnel. ... Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, known also as Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy (HMSN) or Peroneal Muscular Atrophy, is a heterogeneous inherited disorder of nerves (neuropathy) that is characterized by loss of muscle tissue and touch sensation, predominantly in the feet and legs but also in the hands and arms in... Dejerine-Sottas Syndrome/Neuropathy (hereditary motor and sensory polyneuropathy type III; sometimes also described as a subtype III of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease) is an autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive neuropathy. ... Refsums Disease is an autosomal recessive (Chromosome 10) neurological disease that results in the malformation of myelin sheaths around nerve cells. ... Morvans syndrome (or fibrillary chorea) is a rare disease named after nineteenth century French physician Augustin Marie Morvan (1819-1897). ... Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute, autoimmune, polyradiculoneuropathy affecting the peripheral nervous system, usually triggered by an acute infectious process. ... Alcoholic polyneuropathy is a neurological disorder in which many peripheral nerves throughout the body malfunction simultaneously (a polyneuropathy). ... Myasthenia gravis (sometimes abbreviated MG; from the Greek myastheneia, lit. ... Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic condition that describes over 20 genetic and hereditary muscle diseases. ... Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a chronic, slowly progressing, highly variable inherited multisystemic disease that can manifest at any age from birth to old age. ... Myotonia congenita is a genetic, neuromuscular disorder characterized by the slow relaxation of the muscles. ... Thomsen disease, a form of Myotonia congenita, is a muscular genetic disorder characterized by muscle stiffness (cramp) and an inability of the muscle to relax after a voluntary contraction. ... Neuromyotonia is spontaneous muscular activity resulting from repetitive motor unit action potentials of peripheral origin. ... Paramyotonia congenita is a rare congenital neuromuscular disorder which is characterized by a condition in which the muscles do not relax after contracting (myotonia). ... Centronuclear myopathies (CNM) are a group of congenital myopathies where cell nuclei are abnormally located in skeletal muscle cells. ... Periodic paralysis is a rare group of genetic diseases that lead to weakness or paralysis (rarely death) from common triggers such as cold, heat, high carbohydrate meals, not eating, stress or excitement and physical activity of any kind. ... Hypokalemic periodic paralysis is characterized by a fall in potassium levels in the blood. ... Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP), also known as Impressive Syndrome, is an inherited autosomal dominant disorder which affects sodium channels in muscle cells and the ability to regulate potassium levels in the blood of horses. ... Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) is a rare disorder of nerve-muscle (neuromuscular) junction. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Paralysis is the complete loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups. ... Spastic paraplegia is a form of paraplegia defined by spasticity of the affected muscles, rather than paralysis. ... Paraplegia is a condition in which the lower part of a persons body is paralyzed and cannot willfully function. ... Quadriplegia, also known as tetraplegia, is a symptom in which a human experiences paralysis of all four limbs, although not necessarily total paralysis. ... Diplegia is a form of paralysis affecting one part of the body and the corresponding part on the other side of the body (i. ... In medicine, a Monoplegia is a paralysis of a single limb. ... Cauda equina syndrome is a serious neurologic condition in which there is compression of the vertebral column (spine) affecting the S1-S4 nerve roots. ... Peripheral neuropathy is the term for damage to nerves of the peripheral nervous system, which may be caused either by diseases of the nerve or from the side-effects of systemic illness. ... Familial dysautonomia, or FD, is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system which affects the development and survival of sensory, sympathetic and some parasympathetic neurons in the autonomic and sensory nervous system resulting in variable symptoms including: insensitivity to pain, inability to produce tears, poor growth, and labile blood pressure... Horners syndrome is a clinical syndrome caused by damage to the sympathetic nervous system. ... Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a degenerative neurological disorder. ... Shy-Drager syndrome is a rare, progressively degenerative disease of the autonomic nervous system. ... Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a chronic type of communicating hydrocephalus whereby the increase in intracranial pressure (ICP) due to accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) becomes stable and that the formation of CSF equilibrates with absorption. ... Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), sometimes called benign intracranial hypertension (BIH) or pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) is a neurological disorder that is characterized by increased intracranial pressure (ICP), in the absence of a tumor or other intracranial pathology. ... Encephalopathy literally means disease of the brain. ... Herniation, a deadly side effect of very high intracranial pressure, occurs when the brain shifts across structures within the skull. ... Cerebral edema is swelling of the brain which can occur as the result of a head injury, cardiac arrest or from the lack of proper altitude acclimatization. ... Reyes syndrome is a potentially fatal disease that causes numerous detrimental effects to many organs, especially the brain and liver. ... An uncollapsed syrinx (before surgery). ... Syringobulbia is a medical condition when syrinxes, or fluid filled cavities, affect the brainstem. ... Spinal cord compression develops when the spinal cord is compressed by a tumor, abscess or other lesion. ... Susacs syndrome is a microangiopathy characterized by encephalopathy, branch retinal artery occlusions and hearing loss. ... Krabbe disease (also known as globoid cell leukodystrophy or galactosylceramide lipidosis) is a rare, often fatal degenerative disorder that affects the nervous system. ... Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) is the most common form of a family of genetic diseases known as the leukodystrophies, diseases which affect the growth and/or development of myelin, the fatty covering which acts as an insulator around nerve fibres throughout the central and peripherial nervous systems . ... Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a degenerative disorder of myelin, a complex fatty neural tissue that insulates many nerves of the central and peripheral nervous systems. ...