Professor Alexander Leff

I am professor of cognitive neurology and a consultant neurologist at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and an NIHR research professor. My current research projects are funded by an NIHR Research Professorship. My main clinical and academic interest is in cognitive rehabilitation, especially in the field of acquired language disorders and vision. I am developing mechanistic accounts of how cognitive disorders can be improved by different types of therapy (mainly behavioural) using functional and structural brain imaging.

I have developed three web-based rehabilitation tools that can be used to by therapists and patients with hemianopia or reading problems, and am working on four other electronic therapy projects sponsored by the MRC, NIHR and The Stroke Association. I think that web-based applications are a good way to make scientifically proven behavioural therapies available to suitable patients and their therapists.

At the UCLH National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery I have a specialist out-patient MDT assessment clinic for patients with hemianopia and/or higher disorders of vision. I have also been instrumental in the development, funding and running of a novel charity/NHS partnership to treat patients with aphasia: the Queen Square intensive comprehensive aphasia programme.