Research Hospital for FTD in Houston

Paul E. Schulz, M.D.
Associate Professor of Neurology and NeuroscienceDirector, Neurology Residency ProgramDirector, Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology FellowshipDirector, Neurology FellowshipsDirector, Neurology Grand Rounds CMEDirector, Cognitive Research Group

Clinical Service Area
Neurology - Behavioral Neurology

Specialty
Behavioral and Cognitive Disorders Neurodegenerative Disorders

Board Certification
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Neurology

Clinic Appointments
713-798-8986
Consult
713-798-8986

Medical School
Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA

Residency
Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Fellowship
Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Clinical Interests
Dementias, including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, fronto-temporal dementias (FTD), corticobasal ganglionic degeneration, parkinsonism, and manganism. Disorders of thinking, memory, and language. Cognitive impairment in other neurologic disorders such as ALS, Myotonic Dystrophy, and West Nile Virus. Behavioral changes associated with cognitive dysfunction, including anxiety, depressions, mood lability, mania, and apathy. Thought disorders (psychosis) associated with cognitive impairment such as confusion, delusions, hallucinations, misidentifications, misperceptions, and suspiciousness.

Clinic Location
Baylor NeurologySmith Tower6550 Fannin St., Suite 1801Houston, TX 77030

Research Interests
Clinical Research: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and FTD associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), including functional imaging (fMRI) to study social interaction, genetic studies for mutations underlying FTD and ALS, epidemiologic studies of FTD and ALS to ascertain factors that increase or decrease the probability or rate of progression of FTD and ALS, and pathologic approaches of FTD and ALS to ascertain diagnostic accuracy and processes at the cellular level that underlie the disorders; semantic memory, including changes in FTD-ALS, and epilepsy or epilepsy surgery; epidemiologic investigations of dementia to study the frequency, recognition, and treatment of dementia and aggression and anxiety in dementia, and to ascertain risk factors for dementia, which would give clues as to underlying pathophysiology.
Laboratory Research: The normal cellular mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity, which are changes in the connections between neurons (nerve cells) that contribute to the cellular basis of learning and memory, language development, visuospatial function, emotional changes, etc.- the forms of synaptic plasticity under study include LTP, LTD, and decremental potentiation; using electrophysiologic (extracellular and patch-clamp recording techniques) and genetic approaches to study the induction and expression of these forms of synaptic plasticity, which includes investigating intracellular molecules, transcriptional regulation, and mechanisms of expression; investigating how normal synaptic plasticity mechanisms are disrupted in mouse models of dementia to gain clues as to the mechanisms underlying these disorders; the cellular mechanisms underlying a more rapid form of neuronal loss, i.e. that involved in global cerebral (brain) ischemia, and neuroprotection mechanisms to reduce neuronal loss—the hypothesis being that similar mechanisms may be involved in acute (stroke) and more chronic (neurodegeneration) cell loss.