Dr Susanne Schneider

The Brain Research Trust funded PhD student, Dr Suzanne Schneider, over three-years during which she carried out her study entitled, ‘Electrophysiological Biomarkers in genetic Movement Disorders’.

The aim of the project was to investigate the use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in following the progress of neurodegenerative diseases with genetic causes, such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease. TMS, a non-invasive and pain-free method of assessing brain function, was used on 16 Huntington’s disease patients and 15 patients with Parkinson’s.

During the study, Susanne confirmed that TMS does have the potential to detect early changes in the disease course and to monitor disease progression. TMS can also be used as a diagnostic tool to help differentiate between clinically similar diseases on the basis of certain electrophysiological patterns and can give insight into underlying mechanisms of the disorders studied.