Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology

Who Are We?

We are a rapidly growing division of five cognitive and behavioral neurologists located at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. A behavioral neurologist is a neurology subspecialist who focuses on clinical and pathological dysfunction of higher mental functions, especially cognitive dysfunction (such as memory problems or aphasias) but also affective and behavioral aspects of brain function (such as behavioral problems in dementia patients). We are part of the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, which is the largest academic institution for neurologists in Southern Texas. We are also fortunate to work for the Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, a renowned organization in San Antonio, Texas, that focuses on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders (administrative appointment). Together with the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley, we are part of the South Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, one of only 34 nationally designated centers of excellence for Alzheimer’s research and the only one in Texas.

Our mission is to provide excellent clinical care, to ease the burden of disease by conducting cutting edge research, to educate the next generation of leaders in the field, and to provide outreach to the community. To that end, we offer clinical care at Bigg’s Institute’s Memory and Cognition clinic, which is located on the University of Texas outpatient campus. The clinic, located on Floyd Curl Drive, is a tertiary referral clinic staffed by behavioral neurologists, neuropsychologists, social workers, geriatricians, speech therapists, research liaisons, caregiver counselors, a genetic counselor, and nurses. We are proud to be able to offer world-class cutting-edge diagnosis and treatment to our patients, as well as access to dozens of clinical trials. We are leaders in cognitive testing, brain imaging studies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), and genetic testing. Our care ecosystem includes geriatricians, caregiver support, and a social worker. We conduct cutting-edge research with the Biggs Institute to uncover the underlying mechanisms of cognitive and behavioral disorders. We hope to develop new and more effective treatments that can improve outcomes for patients. Cognitive and behavioral neurology is a rapidly evolving field that holds great promise for improving the lives of patients with cognitive and behavioral disorders. Whether you or a loved one is struggling with a cognitive or behavioral condition, the expertise and care provided by cognitive and behavioral neurologists can help you navigate the challenges ahead and achieve the best possible outcomes.

Why Choose Us?

To Our Patients: We are a tertiary referral center for cognitive disorders that is unique in the state of Texas. Our physicians, along with other Bigg’s providers and staff, provide diagnoses, including for rare and subtle conditions, as well as humane care while having access to the latest technologies and treatments.
To Our Future Trainees: We are a young, innovative, well-funded, creative, and future-oriented institution with great opportunities for the brightest candidates suited for leadership in research and the practice of medicine. Our facility includes specialized clinics offering the most up-to-date treatments and diagnostic modalities and technologies, an incredibly diverse and friendly patient population that honors us with their care, a very diverse case mix, and a leading research program with expertise in epidemiology, genetics, imaging (both in the clinical setting and in our Research Imaging Institute), biomarker biology, and other fields. We collaborate closely with the famous Framingham Heart Study and the renowned Barshop Institute. We offer a one-year clinical fellowship and have plans for expansion for additional fellows in a two-year program. We work with Bigg’s Institute to provide bespoke research training. We are interested in high-level talents, including those from other countries, and are willing to go the extra mile administratively to obtain them.

To Our Future Research Collaborators: If you work in dementia research, you are already familiar with the Biggs Institute and our world-class Principal Investigators. You can find more information here. For ideas that overlap with cognition but do not fit neatly with Bigg’s primary mission of researching, treating, and eradicating Alzheimer’s and related diseases, the division is interested in hearing from you to help establish new areas of interest.

Expertise:

Our doctors received their education and training at prestigious cognitive and behavioral neurology centers. Many are world leaders in their field and have many research and educational publications to their name. We are part of Texas’ only Alzheimer’s disease research center (ADRC), designated by the National Institute of Aging. The research allows us to bring advanced expertise to the clinic. The program includes our flagship Memory Clinic, complemented by clinics focused on frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasias, movement disorder-related dementias, early onset dementias, and traumatic brain injury. Management & Investigation of Neurodegenerative Disease (MIND) clinics combine back-to-back neuropsychological and neurobehavioral assessments in single sessions. Our clinics are integrated with geriatric and palliative care programs. Our support services include the Care Ecosystem, caregiver support and counseling, and Social Work. Our clinics partner with our research teams and resources to provide patients access to state-of-the-art advanced imaging, including advanced MRI techniques, FDG PET, amyloid PET, genetics, DAT SPEC scans, neuropsychological testing, and neurophysiology. Our patients have access to a plethora of clinical trials.

Innovation:

The Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology and the Biggs’ Institute have been built on innovation. The innovative research program has a very high output of high impact research, and there are multiple clinical programs addressing the medical and social needs of our patients.

Research:

We conduct research at the Biggs Institute. The Biggs Institute is an NIA designated Alzheimer disease research center and has millions of dollars of local and national funding. It hosts tens of multicenter and investigator-initiated clinical trials to identify new treatments. It houses basic science laboratories in the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies and South Texas Research Facility buildings. Donations to the biosample repository and brain bank enable advancements in diagnostic testing. The Biggs Institute is partnered with a world class imaging research center, the Research Imaging Institute, to offer novel MRI and PET imaging technologies for research. You can learn more about this here.

The Division intends to hold inter-departmental “lab” meetings to generate research ideas and identify potential areas of collaboration for projects. The idea is to get together and to build innovative and exciting applications for pilot grants.

Education:

The centerpiece of our educational program is a one-year UCNS accredited Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry fellowship, which may be extended a second year for research. The Fellow receives hands on experience in Behavioral Neurology, Geriatric Psychiatry, Movement Disorders, Geriatrics, Psychiatry, and elective clinics. They will receive approximately 90 minutes of didactic instruction per week and will attend Biggs Institute-related meetings, such as clinicopathological correlation conferences held by the Brain Bank. Fellows will have the opportunity to experience first-hand the various cores of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, including the Clinical Core, Genomics Core, Biomarker Core, Imaging Core, Neuropathology Core, Population Neuroscience Core, Data Management Core, Research Education Core, and Outreach Recruitment and Engagement Core. Graduates of Neurology and Psychiatry are both accepted into the program. We also provide educational content for the medical school, residency, and fellowship training programs. Clinical training opportunities are available in both the Memory and MIND clinics. Didactic lectures covering behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatric topics are available to all our trainees.

Community:

The Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology and the Biggs Institute are grassroots organizations in San Antonio and South Texas. The Biggs Institute has a number of community outreach and support programs. Caring for the Caregivers, Grief and Loss, and Care for Parents with Dementia are some of our support groups. Many communities’ education and support programs are run by the center. The division has plans for public lectures related to cognitive neurology, to inform, educate, and entertain the public. These will be announced closer to the actual events.

Personalized care:

The care provided at Bigg’s Clinics is personalized in both senses of the word. Our 90-minute intakes allow us to really know our patients, who they are, and how they are affected by their conditions. We have several patient, caregiver, and community support programs that our patients can utilize. We also practice personalized medicine in the sense that when appropriate, we make full use of genetic, biomarker, and imaging data to personalize care for the individual.

What We Treat:

*Mild Cognitive Impairment
*Alzheimer’s Disease
*Vascular Cognitive Impairment
*Lewy Body Disease
*Parkinson’s Disease Dementia
*Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia
*Primary Progressive Aphasias
*Corticobasal Degeneration
*Progressive Supranculear Palsy
*Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus
*CADASIL
*Other cognitive and behavioral conditions.