Jana Amlerova, MD, PhD
Physician
Cognitive Brain Research Group
Department of Neurology, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Motol University Hospital
Scientific background
I have a long-term interest in the neuropsychological characteristics of patients with epilepsy with a focus on social cognition. Social cognition includes individual skills such as emotion perception, empathy, Theory of Mind (ToM), moral awareness and behavior. These skills are tightly interconnected – for example, the inability to recognize emotions can interfere with other processes of assessing the mental state of others. I supervise graduate students whose projects address innovative methodologies for testing social cognition and the potential for therapeutic intervention of deficits in this domain. In my clinical practice, I work with patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy and new treatment options for this fragile population (e.g., auricular vagus nerve stimulation).
Research interests
The main research focus is social cognition with an emphasis on the characteristics of patients with epilepsy. Our research group is interested not only in testing social cognition, but also in finding ways to therapeutically influence deficits in this domain. Our goal is to identify risk factors that predispose to failure in this cognitive domain. As part of our research activities, we are semi-cooperating with the Swiss Epilepsy Center and Arisona State University.
Selected publications
Emotional prosody recognition is impaired in Alzheimer’s disease. Amlerova J, Laczó J, Nedelska Z, Laczó M, Vyhnálek M, Zhang B, Sheardova K, Angelucci F, Andel R, Hort J. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2022 Apr 5;14(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s13195-022-00989-7. PMID: 35382868 Free PMC article. Q1, IF 8,18
Evidences for a Role of Gut Microbiota in Pathogenesis and Management of Epilepsy. Amlerova J, Šroubek J, Angelucci F, Hort J. Int J Mol Sci. 2021 May 25;22(11):5576. doi: 10.3390/ijms22115576. PMID: 34070389 Free PMC article. Review. Q1, IF 6,208
Antibiotics, gut microbiota, and Alzheimer’s disease. Angelucci F, Cechova K, Amlerova J, Hort J. J Neuroinflammation. 2019 May 22;16(1):108. doi: 10.1186/s12974-019-1494-4. PMID: 31118068 Free PMC article. Review Q1, IF 5,7900
Social cognition in Idiopathic generalised epilepsies. Ogurcakova V, Kajsova M, Marusic P, Amlerova J. Behav Brain Res. 2024 Jul 9;469:115044. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115044. Epub 2024 May 10.
PMID: 38734033