FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON March 23, 2006
Washington University Professor to be Awarded Geschwind Prize for Research in Behavioral Neurology
St. Paul, Minn., -
Maurizio Corbetta, MD, the Norman J. Stupp Professor of Neurology and professor of radiology, anatomy and neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., has been selected to receive the 2006 Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioral Neurology. Corbetta will receive the award during the American Academy of Neurology’s 58th Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif., held April 1 – 8. The Norman Geschwind Prize recognizes an individual for outstanding research in the field of behavioral neurology. Corbetta’s research has investigated how the brain recovers after a brain injury such as a stroke. “For over 150 years neurologists have assumed that deficits seen after brain injury are due to the local damage of the affected part of the brain,” he said. “Work from our and other laboratories clearly shows that brain deficits depend not only on local injury, but on the functional effects on other parts of the brain that appear normal on CT or MRI scans.” Functional brain imaging in stroke patients recovering from deficits of spatial attention show for the first time the behavioral importance of these functional changes, Corbetta said. “They also show that recovery of neurological function depends on the restoration and rebalancing of normal activity in these areas that are structurally intact but functionally impaired early on after a stroke.” Corbetta said these new methods may be used to predict the level of function (or outcome) of a patient after an injury. “The ability to predict outcome is very important for patients’ lives and their families and to plan rehabilitation interventions,” he said. Brain scans may also be used to see how well new therapies are working, Corbetta said. Sponsored by the AAN Behavioral Neurology Section, this prize is endowed through Dr. Geschwind’s family, friends, and colleagues; Pfizer Inc; and the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology. The 58th Annual Meeting takes place in the San Diego Convention Center. It is the world’s largest annual gathering of neurologists.