The chronic neurological disorder dystonia got its name in 1911, but after 115 years of study, scientists still don’t fully understand brain changes that cause its painful posture and movement symptoms.
Viviana Hernández-Castañón hopes to better understand how brain activity changes as dystonia develops. The postdoctoral associate in Meike van der Heijden’s lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC will pursue her study with a two-year, $150,000 fellowship from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation.
“We are interested in predicting the onset of dystonia, but also understanding the progression of the disease,” Hernández-Castañón said. “Our aim is to record electrical activity in the brain using a minimally invasive electroencephalography technique. We will track the activity over time and identify biomarkers of brain activity that can indicate that either dystonia is already developing or we are about to observe the symptoms emerge.”…