About the Authors

Caterina Motta

Affiliations Dipartimento di Medicina dei Sistemi, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy, IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo (INM) Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy

Eduardo Palermo

Affiliation Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy

Valeria Studer

Affiliations Dipartimento di Medicina dei Sistemi, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy, Fondazione Santa Lucia/Centro Europeo per la Ricerca sul Cervello (CERC), Rome, Italy

Marco Germanotta

Affiliation Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus Foundation, Milan, Italy

Giorgio Germani

Affiliations Dipartimento di Medicina dei Sistemi, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy, Fondazione Santa Lucia/Centro Europeo per la Ricerca sul Cervello (CERC), Rome, Italy

Diego Centonze

Affiliations Dipartimento di Medicina dei Sistemi, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy, IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo (INM) Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy

Paolo Cappa

Affiliation Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy

Silvia Rossi

Contributed equally to this work with: Silvia Rossi, Stefano Rossi

silvia.rossi@istituto-besta.it

Affiliations Dipartimento di Medicina dei Sistemi, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy, IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo (INM) Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy, Neuroimmunology and Neuromuscolar Diseases Unit, IRCCS Foundation Carlo Besta Neurological Institute, Milan, Italy

Stefano Rossi

Contributed equally to this work with: Silvia Rossi, Stefano Rossi

Affiliation Department of Economics and Management–Industrial Engineering, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

Competing Interests

Dr. Rossi received funding for traveling and honoraria for speaking or consultation fees from Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Teva, Novartis, Bayer Schering, Genzyme, Almirall. She acted as an Advisory Board member of Biogen Idec, Teva, Merck Serono, Bayer, and Novartis and is involved as sub-investigator in clinical trials for Novartis, Merck Serono, Teva, Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Roche. Dr. Centonze acted as an Advisory Board member of Merck Serono, Teva, Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Novartis, Almirall, GW Pharmaceuticals, and received funding for traveling and honoraria for speaking or consultation fees from Merck Serono, Teva, Novartis, Bayer Schering, Sanofi-aventis, Biogen Idec, Almirall. He is the principal investigator in clinical trials for Novartis, Merck Serono, Teva, Bayer Schering, Sanofi-aventis, Biogen Idec, Roche, Almirall. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: Silvia Rossi Stefano Rossi. Performed the experiments: MG GG. Analyzed the data: CM VS EP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PC DC. Wrote the paper: Silvia Rossi Stefano Rossi CM. Interpretation of data: Silvia Rossi Stefano Rossi PC DC. Revision of manuscript: Silvia Rossi Stefano Rossi PC DC CM GG MG EP VS.