Synaptic autoimmunity in neurology, psychiatry and cognitive neuroscience programme
Description
Autoimmune encephalitis refers to a group of inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own proteins—in this case, neurotransmitter receptors or neuronal surface proteins. The action of the antibodies prevents these proteins from functioning properly, which can cause neuro-psychiatric symptoms to appear, such as changes in behaviour, psychosis, seizures and cognitive and memory deficits. They affect people of any age and some of the subtypes appear mainly in children and young adults, accounting for one third of all encephalitis cases worldwide.
The programme aims to improve knowledge of one of these forms of encephalitis, anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate encephalitis (NMDARe), as well as this receptor’s role in normal cognitive functions and in neuropsychiatric diseases.
Goals
- Improve knowledge of the neurological and psychiatric characteristics of NMDARe with a series of clinical and paraclinical investigations (psychophysical, polysomnogram, EEG and magnetic resonance) in the acute and post-acute stages of the disease.
- Develop biomarkers of disease severity and outcome, including psychophysical tests (i.e., serial biases in working memory, slow-wave sleep) for in-person and remote visits; and biomarkers of autoimmunity, inflammation and neurodegeneration.
- Explore the mechanisms of NMDARe and models of memory and cognitive function.
Coordinators
Groups
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Pathogenesis of autoimmune neuronal disorders
Josep Dalmau -
Child and adolescent psychiatry and psychology
Josefina Castro-Fornieles -
Theoretical neurobiology of cortical circuits
Albert Compte -
Cortical circuit dynamics
Jaime De La Rocha -
Clinical Neurophysiology
Alejandro Iranzo -
Multimodal neuroimaging in high risk and early psychosis
Gisela Sugranyes