Josep Dalmau is a neurologist at the Idibaps-Hospital Clínic (Barcelona) He revolutionized the specialty by describing new types of autoimmune encephalitis. The disease is caused by an attack by the immune system against the neurons of the brain.
Some of the manifestations are similar to psychiatric disorders, others cause motor, sensory, sleep alterations, epileptic attacks. The estimated incidence of the disease is one case per year per 100,000 people in Spain.