Dr. Miriam Sklerov, of the Neurology Movement Disorders Center at UNC recently won a K23 through the NIMH, for her project, “Investigation of non-invasive brain stimulation for the treatment of apathy”. They will be recruiting people 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 (EEG) 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.