SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE AT:

October, 23rd and 24th, 2013, Barcelona

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School; Director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School; Associate Dean of Clinical and Translational Research, Director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation; Program Director of the Harvard-Thorndike Clinical Research Unit; and an Attending Neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center - all in Boston. He is a practicing behavioral neurologist and movement disorders specialist. Pascual-Leone is a world leader in research and development, clinical application, and teaching of noninvasive brain stimulation. His work has been fundamental in establishing noninvasive brain stimulation, particularly transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), as a valuable tool in cognitive neurology, increasing knowledge about its mechanisms of action, critically improving the technology and its integration with several brain-imaging methodologies, and helping to create the field of therapeutic noninvasive brain stimulation. In clinical trials, he has provided proof-of-principle evidence for the efficacy of noninvasive brain stimulation in treating various neurologic and psychiatric conditions, including epilepsy, stroke, Parkinson disease, chronic pain, autism, and drug-resistant depression. Pascual-Leone's current research aims at understanding the mechanisms that control brain plasticity across the life span to be able to modify them for the patient's optimal behavioral outcome, prevent age-related cognitive decline, reduce the risk for dementia, and minimize the impact of developmental disorders such as autism. Presently he is also the principal investigator of two multicenter studies assessing the therapeutic utility of noninvasive brain stimulation in Parkinson disease.