ABC Seminar: Developing MEG-based biomarkers of neurological (sensorimotor) disease
When
Where
Event language(s)
Welcome to our ABC Seminars! This seminar series is open for everyone. The talks will take place in Otakaari 3, F239a. After the talks, coffee and pulla will be served.
The event will be also streamed via Zoom at: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/67444945844
Talks:
Speaker: Amande Pauls, PhD, dosentti (HUS BioMag laboratory & HUS Neurocenter)
Title: Developing MEG-based biomarkers of neurological (sensorimotor) disease
Abstract:
The brain is an extremely complex organ which can be studied at many levels, ranging from individual ion channels to whole brain studies and behavioural experiments. Integration of findings from local to global and vice versa is challenging. Breakthroughs are often made for model diseases such as epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease, a brain network disorder with exagge-rated beta oscillations. Beta (13-30 Hz) activity is one of the most salient resting rhythms of the brain. It is most prominent over sensorimotor areas and fluctuates spontaneously over time in a periodic, burst-like manner. Beta is closely linked to the brain’s sensorimotor system and modulated by sensorimotor brain functions such as touch, movement initiation or motor imagery, but also higher cognitive functions such as attention. Movement is an essential ele-ment in almost everything we do and a lot is know about sensorimotor system anatomy and function. I think beta activity and the sensorimotor system are useful when trying to develop a more mechanistic, multi-level understanding of e.g. the relationship between MEG signal changes and specific brain functions.
In the talk, I will go over what we know about healthy beta (and other sensorimotor) activity at rest and in relation to behaviour and outline what we know about electrophysiological beta signal generation. I will then talk about changes in sensorimotor brain activity observed in some model neurological conditions, and how in the case of Parkinson’s disease this knowledge has been translated from bench to bedside to improve therapeutic approaches. I will discuss some ongoing projects exploring the diagnostic potential of sensorimotor and other brain activity. In this context, I will highlight challenges and open questions I have en-countered related to patient MEG data which I think might be interesting to the audience.
About the speaker:
I am a neurologist specialised in movement disorders working at HUS BioMag laboratory and Helsinki University Central Hospital. I studied medicine at the Charité in Berlin, Germany, and did an intercalated PhD at the department of physiology at Oxford University. I then trained as a neurologist at the University Hospital Cologne, Germany, where I also did my postdoc-toral work with Lars Timmermann. Since joining BioMag in 2019, I have studied the brain’s sensorimotor activity and its relationship with neurological disease. My work is currently funded by a Clinical Researcher grant from the Academy of Finland and the Sigrid Juselius foundation.