Behavioral Neurology Fellowship

VA Boston Healthcare System/Boston University School of Medicine

The Behavioral Neurology Fellowship Program at VA Boston is a training program established within the Department of Neurology by Dr. Andrew E. Budson with the purpose of training outstanding behavioral neurologists. The program is UCNS accredited. The program core faculty body includes behavioral neurologists and other specialist neurologists, neuropsychiatrists and other psychiatrists, and neuropsychologists. The fellowship provides a multidisciplinary training environment with access to clinics in memory disorders, neuropsychiatry, traumatic brain injury, movement disorders, ALS, stroke, epilepsy, and neuropsychology, in addition to the inpatient psychiatry consultation-liaison service. The standard fellowship is 2 years, although there is the opportunity for both a shorter, 1-year, clinically focused fellowship and a 3-year research track. Applications are currently being accepted now.

The rotations provide experience in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry disorders including geriatric and neurodevelopmental neuropsychiatric disorders, causes of mild cognitive impairment and dementia including chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, along with rarer disorders (PSP, PPA, CBD, PCA), movement disorders, cerebrovascular disorders, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, and brain tumors.

You will be able to attend formal didactics including principles of neurobiology, nervous system development and aging, higher cortical functions, anatomy and function of brain systems, learning and memory, sleep, clinical manifestations of brain behavior disorders, the clinical assessment of patients with behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry conditions, the neuropsychological assessment, diagnostic studies (neurophysiology, neuroimaging, sleep studies), psychopharmacology, and neurotherapeutics (e.g. deep brain stimulation, vagal nerve stimulation, rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation).

You will also learn the fundamentals of neuropsychology testing administration and interpretation including attending biweekly neuropsychology seminars, which will include case conferences and lectures in the major areas of neuropsychology and, if desired, assisting neuropsychologists during evaluations.

You will be able to attend some of our monthly neuropathology brain cutting sessions, monthly chronic traumatic encephalopathy consensus rounds, and weekly Alzheimer’s disease center case consensus meetings.

Through your fellowship, the faculty will strongly encourage you to develop your own clinical and research interests as you access nationally and internationally recognized clinicians and researchers within the faculty. Current areas of research available to fellows encompass basic neurobiology, neurobiology of neurodegenerative diseases with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, functional neuroimaging, EEG event-related potentials, neurophysiology, epidemiology, genetics, false memories, cognitive strategies and cognitive rehabilitation.

Individual weekly supervision with behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry faculty will provide you with the opportunity to discuss clinical cases or specific topics more in depth. You will also meet with the program director to cover issues ranging from patient care to career development. At the end of the fellowship, you will be well-positioned for a career focusing on academic medicine as a physician scientist and/or cutting-edge clinical care of those with cognitive and behavioral disorders.

Contacts:

Andrew E. Budson, M.D. Professor of Neurology abudson@bu.edu

Katherine  W. Turk, M.D. Assistant Professor of Neurology kturk@bu.edu