Miriam Sklerov, MD, of the UNC Neurology Movement Disorders Center, recently won a National Institutes of Mental Health K23 award for her project, “Investigation of non-invasive brain stimulation for the treatment of apathy.”
Miriam Sklerov, MD, of the UNC Neurology Movement Disorders Center, recently won a National Institutes of Mental Health K23 award for her project, “Investigation of non-invasive brain stimulation for the treatment of apathy.”
The team will recruit participants with Parkinson’s disease to investigate the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation on apathy using a behavioral task and EEG. Apathy, defined as lack of enthusiasm or concern for previously exciting or interesting things, is a very common, debilitating, often refractory symptom, and is associated with poor outcomes in neurologic and psychiatric diseases.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation, is effective in treating depression but has had limited study in apathy. The current study will use a motivated behavioral task and electroencephalography to investigate the use of TMS using Parkinson’s disease as a disease model of apathy, which will have implications across neurologic and psychiatric diagnoses.