Portugal has a long tradition in the study of behavioral disorders, dating back to the work of Egas Moniz and his attempt to improve some psychosis with psychosurgery. In the early 1970’s Antonio Damasio, who was taking his PhD degree in the study of aphasia, founded the Language Research Laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine- University of Lisbon, aimed to the diagnosis and study of language and other symbolic functions. Damasio had visited and trained both with Arthur Benton in Iowa and Norman Geshwind in Harvard, and had a close contact with the Boston School of Aphasia. He was surrounded by a remarkable group of young neurology residents and students, like Hanna Damásio, Alexandre Castro Caldas and Jose Ferro, who continued his work and trained the next generation of neurologists, neuropsychologists and speech and language therapists. Although most publications from this group were focused on the clinical features, localization, recovery and treatment of language disorders, they were also pioneers in the study of cerebral plasticity induced by education and the cognitive disorders associated with stroke and acquired language disorders in children. This group was responsible for the organization of two meetings of the International Neuropsychological Society in Portugal. The systematic study of dementia began in the 1980’s with Carlos Garcia who trained at Cornell University Medical College with Fred Plum and John Blass. Further to his scientific work he was involved in the Alzheimer’s’ disease association and created a research group now headed by Alexandre Mendonça. At present, there are several Portuguese groups dedicated to behavioral neurology and dementia in Lisbon, Oporto and Coimbra (headed by Sara Cavaco, Elia Baeta and Isabel Santana, among others) and several centers investigating in cognition in experimental and clinical models.
Isabel Pavao Martins, MD PhD
Professor of Neurology
Language Research Laboratory
Faculty of Medicine and Instituto de Medicina Molecular
University of Lisbon, Portugal
Consultant Neurologist (CHLN)
Hospital de Sta Maria
Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa
Av. Prof. Egas Moniz, 1649-028, Lisboa, Portugal
Telf.217934480, ext. 51887
Mail: labling@fm.ul.pt
web: www.medicina.ulisboa.pt
