Impaired control of cortico-cortical feedback appears to be involved in brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Understanding the role of cortico-cortical feedback may therefore inform clinical treatments for patients with schizophrenia. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Relevance to public health The "read-out" of visual cortex serves as a model system for interpretation, decision-making and reasoning. This area therefore sheds light on brain functions central to brain disorders affecting higher mental function, such as Alzheimer's disease, Schizophrenia and neglect. Ultimately, a better understanding of the role of cortico-cortical feedback and of how activity in cortical areas is related to perception, decisions and behavior may also allow the development of more sophisticated neural prostheses.

This is a one-year, investigator-initiated, phase II study in 16 patients with Huntington's disease. The protocol is designed to test the safety, tolerance, bioavailability, and efficacy of OPC-14117, a new oxygen free radical scavenger with excellent central nervous system penetration. It will also evaluate the potential benefits of this drug on the movement disorders and mental features of the disease. This study is part of a multi-center trial initiated by the Huntington Study Group, a consortium of clinical investigators and basic scientists with the aim of developing therapeutic agents for HD. The study has been completed and the results have been submitted for publication.

The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic inflammatory disorders of the intestine with autoimmune characteristics. Although the pathogenesis of these disorders is poorly understood, many of their features point to a dysregulated T cell response as a major, if not dominant, etiologic factor. An understanding of the inductive events that regulate development of T cells of the gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT) under normal and inflammatory conditions will be required to better understand the evolution of these diseases and mechanisms by which