Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, Ph.D.

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Laboratory for Magnetic Brain Stimulation, Attending Neurologist, and Director of Research at the Behavioral Neurology Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He holds appointments as Adjunct Associate Professor in Psychiatry at Boston University, and as Associate at the Cognitive Neuroscience Section of the Faculty of Arts and Science at Harvard University. Currently, he is also the Associate Director of the General Clinical Research Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Dr. Pascual-Leone attended Medical School and completed a Ph.D. in Neurophysiology at the University of Valencia (Spain) and the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg i. Br. (Germany). He received his Neurology training at the University of Minnesota where he also completed a fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology. He spent four years working under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Hallett at the Human Motor Control Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (Bethesda, Maryland). He joined Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after working in Spain for four years as Associate Professor of Physiology at the University of Valencia and Staff Scientist at the Institute Ramon y Cajal from the Spanish Research Council.

Dr. Pascual-Leone is Board Certified in Neurology and Neurophysiology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is member of multiple professional societies, including the American Neurological Association. He is the recipient of several honors and awards, including the Ramon y Cajal Award in Neuroscience from the Spain, the Norman Geschwind Award in Behavioral Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology, and the Daniel D. Federman Outstanding Clinical Educator Award from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Pascual-Leone's major areas of research interest are the physiology of higher cognitive functions and the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric symptoms, the study of brain plasticity in regards to skill acquisition and recovery from injury, and the further development of the technique of transcranial magnetic stimulation. Major areas of clinical interest are neuropsychiatry and behavioral problems in patients with movement disorders.