David L Perez MD, MMSc

APA 2025 Denver & Virtual. 8/7-8/9. ANST Sponsored Symposium on Thursday 8/7/25 @9:30am in Session Room #708. Title: Beyond Feedback: Neuropsychology & Intervention for Functional Neurological Disorders. Presenters pictured. Lauren Keats, PsyD Clinical Neuropsychologist, Clinical Director at re+active therapy and wellness presents, “Re-examining the role of neuropsychologists in integrated treatment for individuals with Functional Neurological Disorder”. Devin Ulrich, PhD Clinical Neuropsychologist Department of Neurology Division of Movement Disorders RUSH University Medical Center presents, “Improved Treatment Adherence in Functional Neurological Disorders with Motivational Interviewing”. Daniel Millstein, PhD Clinical Psychologist Departments of Psychiatry & Neurology @ MGH presents, “Therapy for Functional Cognitive Symptoms”.

Attending the upcoming APA Convention? Join us Thursday 8/7 @ 9:30am for ANST’s symposium on FUNCTIONAL NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS. See flyer for more details!

Telehealth and Online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain url:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2836795?utm_source=bluesky&utm_campaign=content-shareicons&utm_content=article_engagement&utm_medium=social&utm_term=072325

Inflammation in Neuropsychiatric Disorders. url:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2836261?utm_source=bluesky&utm_campaign=content-shareicons&utm_content=article_engagement&utm_medium=social&utm_term=071225

Functional Head Tremor: Contrasting Features with Other Tremor Etiologies Background Functional tremor (FT) is considered the most common phenomenology among patients with functional movement disorders (FMDs). Most patients have limb tremor, but they can also present with.....

Functional Head Tremor: Contrasting Features with Other Tremor Etiologies - Baizabal‐Carvallo - Movement Disorders Clinical Practice - Wiley Online Library. movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Impact factor for The Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences (JNCN) is now 2.9! JNCN, the official journal of the American Neuropsychiatric Association, strives to publish field leading papers in neuropsychiatry & allied disciplines. @apapsychiatric.bsky.social

YouTube video by Jon Stone Inside FND

"Inside FND" - a new short film about FND

A film that draws on evidence from patients, clinicians and research to counter common misconceptions about Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). 🧵
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDAv...

Can digital speech markers classify functional speech disorder vs healthy controls? Might digital features identify adjunctive rule in markers (i.e., local shimmer)? Check out Proof-of-Principle Pilot. @neguine.bsky.social #JenniferFreeburn

movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Westlin et al. report increased between-network integration in somatomotor areas and within-network segregation in frontoparietal areas in functional neurological disorder, correlated with somatic symptom severity. Please read at buff.ly/yJTb9zG
@DavidLewisPerez

.@braincomms.bsky.social C. Westlin et al., fMRI study in #FND vs psychiatric controls showing increased crosstalk btw the somatomotor network & multiple other networks (e.g., salience, default mode, frontoparietal). @fndportal.bsky.social @mghmartinos.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/braincomms/a...

NEW FND FILM !- 'Recognising Functional Seizures'🎥

neurosymptoms.org/en/media/fnd...

This 7-minute film was designed to help doctors and other health professionals, especially in emergency medical settings, learn about functional seizures and how to tell them apart from epileptic seizures. 1/

Somatic Symptom Disorder After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury : The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation care centers. Participants: Adults with mTBI (N = 476). Design: Secondary analysis of a clinical trial (Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04704037). Main Measures: Early illness beliefs (Illness Percepti...

New paper with @mattburkemd.bsky.social, @davidlewisperez.bsky.social: Somatic Symptom Disorder after concussion/mTBI was associated with worse symptoms, comorbidity, and disability. SSD may be a useful framework for conceptualizing poor outcome from this injury.
journals.lww.com/headtraumare...

Outstanding #BrainMedicine conference led by #SaraMitchell & #SarahLevitt from the University of Toronto! Great to see momentum growing to erode silos & integrate neurologic, psychiatric, & rehabilitative perspectives for complex brain disorders. #SarahLidstone @mattburkemd.bsky.social

YouTube video by David L Perez David L. Perez MD, MMSc, Mass General Brigham Grand Rounds Sept 2024

Now that all of the findings are published or in press - sharing new talk from Mass General Brigham Neurology Grand Rounds in Sept 2024. Highlights collaborative work in functional cognitive disorder - as well as our recent 3 cohort brain imaging research.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytSn...

Reduced microstructural white matter integrity is associated with the severity of physical symptoms in functional neurological disorder Functional neurological disorder (FND) is linked to functional changes in brain networks without an underlying brain lesion. However, the dichotomy be…

Diffusion-weighted imaging paper in #FND from #Nicolas_Gninenko, #Eliane_Muller & #Selma_Aybek. Reduced microstructural white matter integrity is associated with the severity of physical symptoms in #FND
@neuroimageeic.bsky.social special issue open til 12/2025 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣Fantastic FND Society course on diagnostics, aetiology & Mx of functional seizures+ epilepsy

13-14 June online (or in person Boston USA!)

👌👌

@fndsociety.bsky.social
@jonstoneneuro.bsky.social
@alancarson15.bsky.social
@mahyog.bsky.social
@davidlewisperez.bsky.social
@fndportal.bsky.social

Machine learning classification of functional neurological disorder using structural brain MRI features Background Brain imaging studies investigating grey matter in functional neurological disorder (FND) have used univariate approaches to report group-level differences compared with healthy controls (H...

DW. A complex but valuable investigation comparing healthy and psychiatric control with function neurological disorders on structural MRI scans using machine learning. Consistent differences in different regions were found. Cause, effect, neither? doi.org/10.1136/jnnp... #neurorehabilitation

Neurometabolic network (NMetNet) for functional neurological disorder in children and adolescents Functional neurological disorder (FND) in children and adolescents is a biopsychosocially complex condition characterized by a wide range of neurologi…

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy study in pediatric #FND. Article is part of NeuroImage: Clinical issue on #FND [Dec 2025 deadline for submissions]. @fndsociety.bsky.social
Neurometabolic network for functional neurological disorder in children and adolescents. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Very honoured to receive the 2025 AAN Norman Geschwind Prize for my research trying to better understand disorders and phenomena at the interfaces of Neurology and Psychiatry

Very grateful to all my mentors and colleagues @sunnybrookhsc.bsky.social @uoftmedicine.bsky.social
@harvardmed.bsky.social

Wonderful evening at yesterday’s Society for Behavioral & Cognitive Neurology reception. We celebrated Mario Mendez w the Lifetime Achievement Award & @mattburkemd.bsky.social w the Norman Geschwind Prize - honored to have served as president & ⁦
@aanmember.bsky.social BNNP section chair for 2 yrs.

Standing room only for 2 hour symposium on functional neurological disorder (#FND) at the #AAN2025 meeting - with a focus on functional seizures, post concussive syndrome / functional cognitive disorder & pathophysiology. #BarbaraDworetzky @mattburkemd.bsky.social

A network correspondence toolbox for quantitative evaluation of novel neuroimaging results - Nature Communications Here, the authors present the Network Correspondence Toolbox, which enables researchers to examine and report spatial correspondence between their neuroimaging results and widely used brain atlases.

It's finally here! Use the Network Correspondence Toolbox to help contextualize your neuroimaging findings 🧠

Towards accredited clinical training in brain stimulation: Proceedings from the brain stimulation subspecialty summits The rapid development and clinical use of brain stimulation has renewed debates about whether to define and accredit a pathway for clinical subspecial…

If a doctor is going to stimulate your brain, should they receive special training first? Congrats @shansiddiqi.bsky.social @braincircuits.bsky.social on leading this effort to make brain stimulation a certified clinical subspecialty: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A crowd of people demonstrating outside in front of the Lincoln Memorial on a clear, sunny day. Some of the signs read “Science over Stupidity,” “Science Makes America Great,” and “Team Public Health, Not Team Measles.”

Today at the “Stand up for Science” demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial.

I think it's great practice to look at historical neurology / psychiatry writings and try to notice not only the things that seem wrong now, but points of agreement with current thinking.

Who was perceptive? Who was ahead of their time? What could they know and infer with the tools of the day?

Staggering rates of subjective memory problems across adulthood. Wonder if related to attention economy and information density of digital media environment

Development of a diagnostic checklist to identify functional cognitive disorder versus other neurocognitive disorders Background Functional cognitive disorder (FCD) poses a diagnostic challenge due to its resemblance to other neurocognitive disorders and limited biomarker accuracy. We aimed to develop a new diagnosti...

neurologyopen.bmj.com/content/7/1/...

Very pleased to see this diagnostic aid for Functional cognitive disorders out. It needs further testing but i m feeling optimistic given the cumulative wisdom of the clinicians who kindly provided input into the development

Causal evidence for the processing of bodily self in the anterior precuneus Lyu et al. studied the human posteromedial cortex using a combination of fMRI, intracranial EEG, and direct cortical stimulations. They argue that the anterior PMC is important for the sense of physic...

Neuron

Causal evidence for the processing of bodily self in the anterior precuneus

www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Really important work confirming the very significant healthcare costs of FND

Investment in clinical services & research urgently needed to reduce these costs & improve outcomes for this common yet neglected disorder.

Education of healthcare professionals & the public also urgently needed👍

Sharing economic analysis paper led by #ChrisStephen in functional neurological disorder. FND inpatient & ED costs in adults & children rising steadily - $2 billion in 2019 - coupled with limited research funding. @albertoespay.bsky.social @fndsociety.bsky.social
www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/...

A fascinating thread for folks interested in brain function, autonomic nervous system, functional disorders, and syncope. Check it out!