CV Alvaro Pascual-Leone

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 drugresistant 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.