Expertise:
Clinical Research, Brain Imaging,
Basic Neuroanatomy
My research interest has been centered around brain plasticity.
First as an undergraduate student I performed research on
plasticity during REM sleep. During my Ph.D. at the " National
Polytechnic Institute" in Mexico, I did studies with
Dr. Pablo Rudomin in long-term plasticity in the spinal cord.
With an aim toward investigating mechanisms of neuronal plasticity
and the neuropharmacology of serotonin, I was invited to
NIH where I completed some studies on plastic changes in
development.
Later on at the University of Iowa I joined the Cognitive
Neurology group under the direction of Dr. Antonio Damasio
receiving direct training with Dr. van Hoesen in the area
of human neuroanatomy. My work concentrated on one of the
limbic structures, the entorhinal cortex. This is an area
of particular importance because it is one of the first structures
affected in Alzheimer's Disease and because the neurons exhibiting
pathological alterations (such as neurofibrillary tangles)
are for the most part projection neurons responsible for
interconnections between the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus.
During these years, I published a number of papers on the
pathological alterations in these structures. One important
result originally postulated by Dr. Van Hoesen and further
elaborated with my work, was that the changes in the reciprocal
connectivity between these structures in AD results in a "functional
isolation" of the hippocampus. This could be at least
in part, the structural basis for some of the memory and
emotional deficits of AD. The technical aspects of this work
focused on the cyto- and chemoarchitectural description of
the vertical-modular organization of limbic cortices in man.
From my initial work in an animal model system addressing
issues of plasticity and synaptic habituation to the study
of human cortical anatomy in dementia, my active and long-term
research has focused on the relationship between basic neurobiology
and cognitive neurology. To accomplish this goal however,
I realized that the anatomical assessment albeit very informative,
lacked a direct physiological correlation. Hence, I decided
to complete my scientific approach by adding Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI). I started working in close collaboration with
Dr. Steven Small who introduced me to MRI and to vascular
disease, especially ischemic stroke. The study of rehabilitation
after ischemic stroke proved to be a wonderful model for
cortical plasticity since unlike Alzheimer's disease, stroke
patients can at least in part, recover over time. In these
studies as before, the theoretical approach has been the
determination of changes in brain connectivity.
The aim with my work has been to study anatomical and physiological
substrates of disease that have a reasonable likelihood of
leading to therapeutic interventions. My present interest
on recovery after focal ischemic damage builds on previous
work in two ways: (1) integrating previous areas of investigation,
including CNS plasticity, cortical network analysis, serotonergic
pharmacology, and human fronto-temporal anatomy, into a coherent
program of clinically relevant basic scientific study; (2)
applying the neurological localizational method to study
the most prevalent of all causes of disability (especially
in the population over 65 years). So my work currently focuses
in two issues: a) Motor recovery after stroke b) Early diagnosis
of Alzheimer’s disease.
Specific research projects:
Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease by DTI; Network
changes during recovery from motor stroke; Hand motor therapy
using mirror System physiology; Prevention of post-stroke
depression; Assessment of brain vascular compliance through
aging.
|
