Urban EkmanKarolinska Institutet | KI · Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society - NVS
Urban Ekman
PhD, Psychologist
About
37
Publications
7,083
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602
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Urban Ekman currently works at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society - NVS, Karolinska Institutet.
My research platform has two main paths:
1. With its large-scale magnitude and population-based multi-center character the MemClin project is envisioned to provide a unique platform concerning clinically relevant research for many years to come, targeting early clinical manifestations of diverse neurodegenerative disorders and other cognitive conditions.
2. Creating an innovative research platform that will take a collective approach in developing and evaluate new and efficient psychological treatment- and cognitive rehabilitation methods for cognitively impaired individuals. This will be conducted in synch with the latest technological development.
Additional affiliations
February 2011 - December 2014
Education
January 2001 - January 2009
Publications
Publications (37)
Background
Balance training interventions with a gradual progression of difficulty and highly challenging tasks designed specifically for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are rare. The objective was to adapt a balance training intervention originally developed for Parkinson’s disease through a co-design process and then conduct a pilot trial in...
Introduction:
While functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can provide insight into motor-cognitive deficits during ecologically valid gait conditions, the feasibility of using fNIRS during complex walking remains unknown. We tested the process and scientific feasibility of using an fNIRS device to measure cortical activity during complex w...
Background:
Cognitive reserve (CR) is hypothesized to partially explain the discrepancy between Alzheimer's disease related brain pathology and cognitive performance. Educational attainment is often used as a proxy for CR.
Objective:
To examine the association of years of education and the relationship between atrophy in the medial temporal lobe...
Balance dysfunction is a disabling symptom in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Evidence suggests that exercise can improve balance performance and induce neuroplastic effects. We hypothesised that a 10-week balance intervention (HiBalance) would improve balance, other motor and cognitive symptoms, and alter task-evoked brain activity in people...
Background
Reduced motor and cognitive dual-task capacity is found to be more common among people with multiple sclerosis (MS), than among healthy populations. However, studies in larger samples of MS conducted using a more stringent methodology, which includes comparisons to healthy controls, are needed. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to...
Background
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a clinically and neuroanatomically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disease characterized by different subtypes. To this date, no studies have used multimodal data that combines clinical, motor, cognitive and neuroimaging assessments to identify these subtypes, which may provide complementary, clinically releva...
Background:
Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by motor deficits and brain alterations having a detrimental impact on balance, gait, and cognition. Intensive physical exercise can induce changes in the neural system, potentially counteracting neurodegeneration in PD and improving clinical symptoms.
Objective:
This randomized controlled tr...
Background
The knowledge of the long-term consequences of covid-19 is limited. In patients, symptoms such as fatigue, decreased physical, psychological, and cognitive function, and nutritional problems have been reported. How the disease has affected next of kin, as well as staff involved in the care of patients with covid-19, is also largely unkno...
Background
Epidemiological studies show an association between masticatory function and cognitive impairment. This has further strengthened the notion that tooth loss and impaired masticatory function may be risk factors for dementia and cognitive decline. Animal experiments have indicated a causal relationship and several possible mechanisms have...
The cause of cognitive dedifferentiation has been suggested as specific to late-life abnormal cognitive decline rather than a general feature of aging. This hypothesis was tested in two large cohorts with different characteristics. Individuals (n = 2710) were identified in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) research database (n...
We investigated the feasibility aspects of two choice reaction time tasks designed to assess implicit sequence learning and dual task ability in individuals with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease in comparison to healthy individuals. Twelve individuals with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease and 12 healthy individuals, all ≥ 60 years of age, w...
Introduction:
We investigated the association between atrophy subtypes of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the ATN classification scheme, and key demographic and clinical factors in 2 cohorts with different source characteristics (a highly selective research-oriented cohort, the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative [ADNI]; and a naturalistic heter...
People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience greater difficulties during dual task (DT) walking compared to healthy controls, but factors explaining the variance in DT costs remain largely unknown. Additionally, as cognitive impairments are common in PD it is important to understand whether cognitive status influences the strategies used during...
BACKGROUND: Cognitive dedifferentiation describes the process in which acquired cognitive skills decline in later life making them more similar. The cause of cognitive dedifferentiation has been suggested as specific to late-life abnormal cognitive decline rather than a general feature of aging. This hypothesis was tested in two large cohorts with...
BACKGROUND: Individuals with early phase cognitive impairment are frequently affected by existential distress, social avoidance and associated health issues (including symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression). The demand for efficient psychological support is crucial from both an individual and a societal perspective. We have developed a novel...
Understanding the association between two popular classification schemes: AD subtypes (based on patterns of brain atrophy) and the ATN (based on dichotomous categories of amyloid‐beta deposition (A), tauopathy (T) and neurodegeneration (N)) might increase our current understanding of the neurobiological heterogeneity within AD. We aimed to evaluate...
BACKGROUND
We investigated the association between atrophy subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the ATN classification scheme, and key demographic and clinical factors, in two cohorts with different source characteristics (a highly selective research-oriented cohort, ADNI; and a naturalistic heterogeneous clinically-oriented cohort, Karolinska Ima...
Background. Recent studies indicate that exercise can induce neuroplastic changes in people with Parkinson’s disease (PwPD). Reports of feasibility outcomes from existing pilot trials however are, of date, insufficient to enable replication by others in larger definitive trials. Objective. To evaluate trial design for a definitive trial by explorin...
Background:
There remains a lack of large-scale clinical studies of cognitive impairment that aim to increase diagnostic and prognostic accuracy as well as validate previous research findings. The MemClin project will amass large quantities of cross-disciplinary data allowing for the construction of robust models to improve diagnostic accuracy, ex...
Background:
Parkinson's disease (PD) affects many physiological systems essential for balance control. Recent studies suggest that intensive and cognitively demanding physical exercise programs are capable of inducing plastic brain changes in PD. We have developed a highly challenging balance training (the HiBalance) program that emphasizes critic...
Objectives
Rehabilitation of patients with chronic visuospatial neglect is underexplored, and little is known about neural mechanisms that can be exploited to promote recovery. In this study, we present data on resting state functional connectivity within the dorsal attention network (DAN) in chronic neglect patients as they underwent training in a...
Objective:
To examine the effects of monoaminergic stabilizer (-)-OSU6162 on brain activity, as measured by blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in patients in the chronic phase of traumatic brain injury suffering from fatigue.
Setting:
Neurorehabilitation clinic.
Participants:
Patients with traumat...
The objective of this study was to evaluate the A/T/N biomarker scheme in relation with brain atrophy patterns in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Of the 154 participants with MCI, 74 progressed to AD within 36-months, and 80 remained stable. In addition, 101 cognitively healthy participants and 102 participants with AD were includ...
BACKGROUND: Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and dementia differ in important ways yet share a future of increased prevalence. Separating these conditions from each other, and from Subjective Cognitive Impairment (SCI), is important for clinical prognoses and treatment, socio-legal interventions, and family adjustments. With costly clinical investig...
Objectives:
A third of patients with stroke acquire spatial neglect associated with poor rehabilitation outcome. New effective rehabilitation interventions are needed. Scanning training combined with multisensory stimulation to enhance the rehabilitation effect is suggested. In accordance, we have designed a virtual reality-based scanning training...
Compared to best performances, worst performances on multi-trial psychometric tests often show stronger correlations with other g-loaded cognitive tests, which is known as the Worst Performance Rule (WPR). While worst performances may be more sensitive or specific to cognitive decline, clinical psychometric research and neuropsychological practice...
Objective:
To investigate whether functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to detect fatigue after traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Setting:
Neurorehabilitation clinic.
Participants:
Patients with TBI (n = 57) and self-experienced fatigue more than 1 year postinjury, and age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 27).
Main mea...
Atrophy patterns on MRI can reliably predict three neuropathological subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease (AD): typical, limbic-predominant, or hippocampal-sparing. A method to enable their investigation in the clinical routine is still lacking. We aimed to (1) validate the combined use of visual rating scales for identification of AD subtypes; (2) char...
Mental fatigue is a common symptom in the chronic phase of traumatic brain injury. Despite its high prevalence, no treatment is available for this disabling symptom, and the mechanisms underlying fatigue are poorly understood. Some studies have suggested that fatigue in traumatic brain injury and other neurological disorders might reflect dysfuncti...
Background
Presence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a predictor for Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) has been discussed from a clinical perspective. Recently, a Movement Disorder Society (MDS) commissioned Task Force published guidelines for PD-MCI. However, long-term follow-ups of the PD-MCI guidelines for the prediction of PDD have been s...
Cognitive deficits are common in Parkinson's disease. Previous cross-sectional research has demonstrated a link between cognitive impairments and fronto-striatal dopaminergic dysmodulation. However, longitudinal studies that link disease progression with altered task-evoked brain activity are lacking. Therefore, our objective was to longitudinally...
Many patients with Parkinson's disease have mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Deficits in executive functions and working memory suggest dysfunctional frontostriatal brain circuitry. We aimed to assess brain responses during a working memory task in a cohort of newly diagnosed drug-naive patients with Parkinson's disease with and without MCI.
Partic...
Projects
Projects (4)
The memory clinics in the Stockholm area predominantly use similar examination methods, which benefits high quality data collection and merging across clinics. Nine out of 10 memory clinics in the greater Stockholm area are included. The MemClin project will approximately include 1200-1500 new patients annually (throughout 2023). The MemClin project aims to build robust models for improved diagnostic accuracy, longitudinal prognosis, increase knowledge on differential diagnostic predictors, and harmonise examination protocols across clinics.
Cognitive decline is part of the essential symptomatology in a wide spectrum of medical conditions over the life course. The burden of cognitive impairment is severe, often compromising daily life independence in those affected, and their families often carry a large burden. Thus, there is an urgent need for improved methods, and to provide access to effective methods that could improve the life and care of people with cognitive impairments. However, there is a lack of efficient psychological treatment- and rehabilitative methods for maintaining cognitive health to sufficiently impact daily life. Thus, increased knowledge of how to prevent, cope, and intervene with cognitive decline is utterly needed. In accordance, the overarching goal with the current research project is to create an excellent research platform focused on cognitively impaired individuals, where development and evaluation of novel treatment and rehabilitation methods can be conducted. The methods will integrate the latest technological solutions to promote feasibility, neuro-cognitive brain plasticity, and motivation for the tasks ahead.
With an aging worldwide population comes an increasing need to improve our knowledge of age-related neurodegenerative diseases. The present project investigates possibilities pertaining to psychometrics and psychobiology for the purpose of augmenting diagnostic differentiation and prognostic prediction of normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia in the clinical interdisciplinary setting. Contemporary machine learning modelling applied for evaluating different predictors constitute a particular focal point of the project.
