The Neurological Field Continues to Update

With respect to the history of functions successively attributed to it, the cerebellum is perhaps one of the most remarkable parts of the central nervous system. Five years ago, I wrote about vital functions attributed to the cerebellum (“Early Ideas on the Localization of Vital Functions: From Cerebellum to Medulla Oblongata,” World Neurology, Winter 2019). This was particularly true in the 17th and 18th centuries when it was initially thought that the cerebellum was a vital organ. More careful experiments gradually revealed that this was not the case. The ideas regarding nonmotor functions of the cerebellum, however, are more numerous than that.

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report, the most comprehensive study of death and health loss globally, probably needs no introduction to most readers. New estimates for the entire series (from 1990 onward) are published every two years. The standardized method, including calculation of years lived with disability (YLD), allows for a comparison of the burden between disorders.