Research

Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders

Neurological Diseases, Neuroscience and Mental Health
Jaime Kulisevsky 25-3817.jpg

The group focuses on Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, atypical parkinsonisms, tremor, and other movement disorders. It conducts clinical and translational research aimed at studying the neuronal mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment and neuropsychiatric symptoms, developing disease-specific diagnostic tools, and analyzing responses to pharmacological treatments. Research activities integrate methodologies such as neuroimaging, neuropsychology, clinical assessment, brain stimulation, genetics, and fluid biomarkers, among others.

Main lines of research

  • Research on cognitive impairment, behavioral dysfunction, and other motor and non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease, using neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques to identify biomarkers and to develop disease-specific tools for cognitive and functional assessment. (Kulisevsky Bojarski, Jaime; Pagonabarraga Mora, Javier; Pascual Sedano, Berta M.)
  • Investigation of clinical progression, cognitive phenotypes, and biomarkers in Huntington’s disease, in both premanifest and manifest stages, through international cohort studies, multimodal neuroimaging, and the analysis of large-scale databases. (Martínez-Horta, Saúl Indra; Pérez-Pérez, Jesús)
  • Development of specific cognitive assessment tools for progressive supranuclear palsy, along with the study of neural correlates of clinical progression, cognitive decline, and behavioral alterations. (Pagonabarraga Mora, Javier)
  • Clinical, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging characterization of essential tremor, aimed at improving diagnostic accuracy and advancing the understanding of underlying disease mechanisms. (Gironell Carrero, Alexandre)

Scientific Challenges

Parkinson’s Disease (PD)

  • General
    • COPPADIS: Cohort of Patients with Parkinson’s Disease in Spain (national collaborative study).
    • Intensification for Specialist Physicians within the “Strategic Research and Innovation Plan” (PERIS; Expedient No. SLT008/18).
    • Cognition DuoCog: randomized, double-blind, crossover study comparing immediate versus intraduodenal levodopa on cognition and mood.
  • Neuropsychiatric disorders
    • Prospective study evaluating a novel music therapy approach for apathy and depression.
    • Choral singing intervention in PD: effects on apathy and depression.
    • Effects of mindfulness on temperament and character dimensions (TCI).
    • Natural history and neural correlates of psychotic symptoms in PD.
  • Advanced PD
    • Nutritional assessment in patients receiving intraduodenal levodopa.
    • Prospective study of cognition, behavior, sleep, and quality of life in patients treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS) and intraduodenal levodopa.
    • Prospective study on patient satisfaction following DBS.
    • Subthalamic DBS in PD: functional reorganization of brain networks and its impact on postsurgical complications.
    • Mobility monitoring using wearable sensors in fluctuating PD for therapeutic purposes (multicentre clinical trial, INV-PROC-A118).

Huntington’s Disease (HD)

  • Coordination of the Cognitive Phenotype Working Group (European Huntington’s Disease Network).
  • Spanish coordination of Enroll-HD, a global prospective registry study (PI in Spain: J. Kulisevsky).
  • Validation of cognitive (HD-CRS) and functional (HD-CFRS) scales.
  • Development and validation of novel tools for cognitive and functional assessment in HD.

Tremor

  • Development of a tremor diagnostic system based on a mobile application and dedicated software (in collaboration with Mediktor).
  • Evaluation of perampanel in essential tremor: real-world study.

Other Neurodegenerative Diseases

  • Neural correlates of hypofrontality across progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) subtypes.
  • Neuropsychiatric and behavioral symptoms in PSP subtypes.
  • FXTAS: collaborative research with the Genetics Department of Hospital Clínic (Barcelona) and the Associació Catalana X Fràgil (ACXF).
  • Collaboration with GEMT-CAT (Catalan Neurological Society Movement Disorders Group) on the Consensus Document on Genetics in Movement Disorders.

Neuroimaging and Data Engineering

  • Dynamic connectivity models of cognitive impairment in PD (in collaboration with the Center for Brain and Cognition, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona).
  • Neuroimaging and neurophysiology of hallucinations in PD: “Unraveling dysfunctional brain networks in patients with Parkinson’s disease suffering from hallucinations” (in collaboration with EPFL, Switzerland).
  • Effects of dopaminergic treatment on neurocognitive networks in PD (collaborative study with Hospital del Mar, Barcelona).
  • Functional and structural brain correlates in HD, including cognition, apathy, depression, irritability, biomarkers, and oxytocin levels (collaboration with Hospital Universitario de Burgos).
  • Analysis of large-scale collaborative databases (Enroll-HD, PPMI, COPPADIS).
  • Analysis of local databases (PSP, HD, PD).

Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Laboratory

  • Processing, biobanking, and biomarker analysis of human biofluids (plasma, serum, CSF, and urine) across movement disorders.
  • Development and optimization of methods for extracellular vesicle isolation from multiple biofluids. Identification of molecular signatures in extracellular vesicles (brain, plasma, CSF, urine) in Huntington’s disease to improve prognosis and patient stratification in clinical trials.
  • Evaluation of tau and phosphorylated alpha-synuclein in skin tissue for early and differential diagnosis of atypical parkinsonian syndromes.

Contact

Jaime Kulisevsky
jkulisevsky@santpau.cat

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