Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34071187›Full record

ReviewBrain sciences2021

Cortical Excitability across the ALS Clinical Motor Phenotypes.

Thanuja Dharmadasa

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Brain sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Response to "Palpebral ptosis as the initial symptom of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis": the potential usefulness of cortical excitability and motor band sign as biomarkers of upper motor neuron degeneration.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Cell Type-Specific Alterations in Excitability and Inhibition of Upper Motor Neurons in AlsinKO Mice, a Model of Juvenile Onset ALS.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Betz cells of the primary motor cortex.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2024
    Review
  11. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.

Thanuja DharmadasaNuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford University, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-6544-1091
The University of Sydney · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by its marked clinical heterogeneity. Although the coexistence of upper and lower motor neuron signs is a common clinical feature for most patients, there is a wide range of atypical motor presentations and clinical trajectories, implying a heterogeneity of underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Corticomotoneuronal dysfunction is increasingly postulated as the harbinger of clinical disease, and neurophysiological exploration of the motor cortex in vivo using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has suggested that motor cortical hyperexcitability may be a critical pathogenic factor linked to clinical features and survival. Region-specific selective vulnerability at the level of the motor cortex may drive the observed differences of clinical presentation across the ALS motor phenotypes, and thus, further understanding of phenotypic variability in relation to cortical dysfunction may serve as an important guide to underlying disease mechanisms. This review article analyses the cortical excitability profiles across the clinical motor phenotypes, as assessed using TMS, and explores this relationship to clinical patterns and survival. This understanding will remain essential to unravelling central disease pathophysiology and for the development of specific treatment targets across the ALS clinical motor phenotypes.

Indexed as

ALS focalityamyotrophic lateral sclerosiscortical hyperexcitabilityphenotypic heterogeneitysurvivaltranscranial magnetic stimulation

Identifiers

PMID34071187
PMCPMC8230203
OpenAlexW3164783437

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.