Journal of the Neurological Sciences issue 490 now available

Issue highlights

Research Article (Open Access)

Comparing PROMIS Global Health and Rivermead Post-concussion Symptoms Questionnaire in adult traumatic brain injury

Coffin et al.

Published online: July 27, 2026

This retrospective study of 216 adult traumatic brain injury (TBI) outpatients evaluated whether the generic Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Global Health scale and the symptom-specific Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) provide interchangeable recovery assessments. While statistical analysis revealed consistent inverse group-level correlations between the tools—meaning higher overall health scores aligned with lower symptom burdens—patient-level agreement was poor, featuring negative intraclass correlation coefficients and wide limits of agreement.

Research Article

Autoimmune encephalitis in older adults: Atypical presentation, therapeutic approaches and implication for diagnostic criteria

Gupta et al.

Published online: August 3, 2026

This retrospective study of 183 autoimmune encephalitis (AE) patients across two academic centers evaluated age-related differences in clinical presentation, diagnostic criteria adherence, and treatment strategies between younger (<65 years) and older adults (≥65 years).

The findings revealed that older adults—who were more likely to harbor anti-LGI1 and anti-CASPR2 antibodies rather than anti-NMDAR—presented less frequently with typical features like headache, sleep disturbances, and CSF pleocytosis, making them significantly less likely to meet standard clinical consensus criteria for probable antibody-negative AE.

Research Article

From function to structure: Cortical thickness correlates of olfactory dysfunction across cognitively normal, mild cognitive impairment and Parkinson's disease

Giriprakash et al.

Published online: August 22, 2026

This moderation analysis examined how clinical diagnosis influences the relationship between olfactory function (assessed via B-SIT®) and brain morphometry across 74 participants categorized as Cognitively Normal (CN), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), or Parkinson's disease with cognitive impairment (PD-CogImp).

The researchers found that clinical diagnosis significantly moderates the relationship between smell identification and cortical thickness in specific visual-processing areas—the bilateral cuneus and right pericalcarine gyrus—where CN individuals exhibited a positive correlation between olfactory performance and cortical thickness, whereas the MCI and PD-CogImp groups demonstrated a negative trend. Because these diagnosis-dependent structural associations were unique to cortical thickness rather than volume (and were partially mediated by $A POE ε 4$ ), the findings underscore distinct brain-olfactory integrity patterns across different stages of healthy aging and neurodegeneration.

Research Article (Open Access)

Assessing the feasibility of ChatGPT in predicting outcomes after intracerebral hemorrhage

Mintz et al.

Published online: August 24, 2026

This study evaluated the performance of GPT-4o mini in predicting 3-month functional outcomes (measured by the modified Rankin Scale) for 409 intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients using standard admission data from the first 24 hours. The AI model achieved prognostic accuracy comparable to board-certified neurologists (AUC 0.86 vs. 0.85 for favorable outcomes), providing a consistent alternative to human clinicians who demonstrated substantial inter-rater variability.

However, much like human physicians, the model consistently tended to underestimate long-term disability, demonstrating reduced accuracy in older patients and those presenting with milder initial deficits. Overall, these findings suggest that while large language models hold promise as objective decision-support tools for post-ICH prognostication, their systematic bias toward underestimating disability must be accounted for in clinical application.

News

	Research Article (Open Access) Comparing PROMIS Global Health and Rivermead Post-concussion Symptoms Questionnaire in adult traumatic brain injury Coffin et al. Published online: July 27, 2026 This retrospective study of 216 adult traumatic brain injury (TBI) outpatients evaluated whether the generic Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Global Health scale and the symptom-specific Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) provide interchangeable recovery assessments. While statistical analysis revealed consistent inverse group-level correlations between the tools—meaning higher overall health scores aligned with lower symptom burdens—patient-level agreement was poor, featuring negative intraclass correlation coefficients and wide limits of agreement.

	Research Article Autoimmune encephalitis in older adults: Atypical presentation, therapeutic approaches and implication for diagnostic criteria Gupta et al. Published online: August 3, 2026 This retrospective study of 183 autoimmune encephalitis (AE) patients across two academic centers evaluated age-related differences in clinical presentation, diagnostic criteria adherence, and treatment strategies between younger (<65 years) and older adults (≥65 years). The findings revealed that older adults—who were more likely to harbor anti-LGI1 and anti-CASPR2 antibodies rather than anti-NMDAR—presented less frequently with typical features like headache, sleep disturbances, and CSF pleocytosis, making them significantly less likely to meet standard clinical consensus criteria for probable antibody-negative AE.

	Research Article From function to structure: Cortical thickness correlates of olfactory dysfunction across cognitively normal, mild cognitive impairment and Parkinson's disease Giriprakash et al. Published online: August 22, 2026 This moderation analysis examined how clinical diagnosis influences the relationship between olfactory function (assessed via B-SIT®) and brain morphometry across 74 participants categorized as Cognitively Normal (CN), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), or Parkinson's disease with cognitive impairment (PD-CogImp). The researchers found that clinical diagnosis significantly moderates the relationship between smell identification and cortical thickness in specific visual-processing areas—the bilateral cuneus and right pericalcarine gyrus—where CN individuals exhibited a positive correlation between olfactory performance and cortical thickness, whereas the MCI and PD-CogImp groups demonstrated a negative trend. Because these diagnosis-dependent structural associations were unique to cortical thickness rather than volume (and were partially mediated by $A POE ε 4$ ), the findings underscore distinct brain-olfactory integrity patterns across different stages of healthy aging and neurodegeneration.

	Research Article (Open Access) Assessing the feasibility of ChatGPT in predicting outcomes after intracerebral hemorrhage Mintz et al. Published online: August 24, 2026 This study evaluated the performance of GPT-4o mini in predicting 3-month functional outcomes (measured by the modified Rankin Scale) for 409 intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients using standard admission data from the first 24 hours. The AI model achieved prognostic accuracy comparable to board-certified neurologists (AUC 0.86 vs. 0.85 for favorable outcomes), providing a consistent alternative to human clinicians who demonstrated substantial inter-rater variability. However, much like human physicians, the model consistently tended to underestimate long-term disability, demonstrating reduced accuracy in older patients and those presenting with milder initial deficits. Overall, these findings suggest that while large language models hold promise as objective decision-support tools for post-ICH prognostication, their systematic bias toward underestimating disability must be accounted for in clinical application.

World Federation of Neurology

Fostering quality neurology and brain health worldwide