title: Aristides Leão: a birth centennial homage with comments on his spreading depression.
abstract: The year of 2014 is the birth centenary of Aristides Azevedo Pacheco Leão (1914-1993), and also marks seventy years of the publication of his discovery of the novel electrophysiological phenomenon, named by him "spreading depression" (SD), soon designated "Leão's wave" or "Leão's spreading depression". This was a remarkable scientific milestone, and the author must be celebrated for this achievement, as the studies he triggered proceeded worldwide, with new concepts, as spreading depolarization, until the present days. Robust experimental and clinical evidence emerged to suggest that these and related electrophysiological phenomena are involved in the mechanisms of migraine aura, acute cerebrovascular diseases, traumatic brain injury, transient global amnesia, epileptic seizures, and their pathophysiological characteristics come to offer new therapeutic perspectives. He was a remarkable and complex personality, and the authors remit the readers to a paper where his personal life is contemplated.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Doença de Alzheimer-Instituto de Psiquiatria, Instituto de Neurologia Deolindo Couto, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Eliasz
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Engelhardt
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Neurologia Deolindo Couto, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marleide da Mota
authors.initials: Mda M
authors.lastname: Gomes
mesh_terms: D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000266:history / Q000503:physiopathology; D001938:Brazil; D013181:Cortical Spreading Depression / Q000502:physiology*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D009482:Neurophysiology / Q000266:history*