Professor of Neurology, Clinical Neurosciences, University of Turku, 2023-

Chief neurologist, Neurocenter, Turku University Hospital, 2023-

Associate Professor, Neuroimaging, Turku Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku, 2022-2023

Assistant Professor, Neuroimaging, Turku Brain and Mind Center, University of Turku, 2019-2022

Specialist in Neurology, University on Turku, 2020

Postdoctoral Researcher (Academy of Finland) 2016-2019

Research Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 2016-2018 

Adjunct Professor, Department of Neurology University of Turku, 2015-

PhD, University of Turku, 2012

MD, University of Turku, 2009

Currently, I work as Professor of Neurology at University of Turku and chief neurologist at Turku University Hospital. I lead Brain Stimulation and Neuroimaging laboratory at University of Turku (www.turkubrainlab.fi) and act as the chair of Turku Brain and Mind Center.

My research work focuses on investigating the neurobiological mechanisms of brain disorders and development of new treatment options using neuromodulation techniques. I am interested in a wide spectrum of brain disorders but especially neurological movement disorders and addictions. Our lab uses multimodal approach, combining causal brain lesions, state-of-the-art brain imaging technologies (MRI, PET, SPECT) and neuromodulation techniques (TMS, DBS, MRgFUS). 

10 representative publications:

Liesmäki O, Kungshamn J, Likitalo O, Ellis EG, Bellmunt-Gil A, Aaltonen J, Steinweg I, Myller EM, Roine S, Friedrich MU, Ylikotila P, Joutsa J. Localization and network connectivity of lesions causing limb ataxia in patients with stroke. Neurology 2024;103(6)

Theys C, Jaakkola E, Melzer TR, De Nil LF, Guenther FH, Cohen AL, Fox MD, Joutsa J. Localization of stuttering based on causal brain lesions. Brain 2024;147(6):2203-13.

Honkanen EA, Rönkä J, Pekkonen E, Aaltonen J, Koivu M, Eskola O, Eldebakey H, Volkmann J, Kaasinen V, Reich MM, Joutsa J. GPi-DBS induced brain metabolic activation in cervical dystonia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 2024;95(4):300-8.

Joutsa J, Lipsman N, Horn A, Cosgrove GR, Fox MD. The return of the lesion for localization and therapy. Brain 2023;146(8):3146-55.

Corp DT, Greenwood C, Morrison-Ham J, Pullinen J, McDowall G, Younger E, Jinnah H, Fox MD, Joutsa J. Clinical and structural findings in patients with lesion-induced dystonia: descriptive and quantitative analysis of all published cases. Neurology 2022;99(18):1957-67.

Joutsa J, Moussawi K, Siddiqi S et al. Brain lesion disrupting addiction map to a common human brain circuit. Nature Medicine 2022;28:1249-55.

Joutsa J, Shih LC, Fox MD. Mapping Holmes’ tremor circuit using the human brain connectome. Ann Neurol 2019;86(6):812-20.

Joutsa J, Horn A, Hsu J, Fox MD. Localization of parkinsonism based on focal brain lesions. Brain 2018;141(8):2445-56.​​​​​​​

Joutsa J, Shih LC, Horn A, Reich MM, Wu O, Rost N, Fox MD. Identifying therapeutic targets from spontaneous beneficial brain lesions. Ann Neurol. 2018;84(1):153-7. 

Joutsa J, Rinne JO, Hermann B, Karrasch M, Anttinen A, Shinnar S, Sillanpää M. Association between childhood-onset epilepsy and amyloid burden 5 decades later. JAMA Neurology 2017;74(5):583-90.

Lead teacher in neurology, M.D. curriculum