Multimodal neuromodulation of cortical circuits: from basic neurophysiology to clinical application
Event details
| Date | 07.01.2015 |
| Hour | 12:00 › 13:00 |
| Speaker | Prof. Giacomo KOCH, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy. |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive brain stimulation method, allows testing key human neurophysiological mechanisms of cortical excitability, connectivity and plasticity. The multimodal combination of TMS with neuroimaging techniques such as functional MRI (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and electroencephalography (EEG), gives the opportunity to investigate in depth how neural activity vary in time and space along interconnected brain areas. In this presentation I will show how neural interactions can be observed both in resting conditions and during the planning or execution of motor and cognitive tasks, providing dynamic pictures of how the neural activity of certain cortical networks quickly varies in response to specific goals. In this context, multimodal neuromodulation represents a powerful tool to track causal functional connectivity within a millisecond time scale. On the other hand, repeated exposure to TMS (rTMS) provides the unique possibility to induce cortical plasticity. Plastic changes can be tracked not only at level of the stimulated areas, but also on the entire tested neural network. It is now widely accepted that daily application of rTMS, when translated in the clinical ground, is a promising and powerful tool to treating several neurological conditions. I will provide few examples of how multimodal neuromodulation can first be used to identify the neural features of a certain circuit, both in healthy and in pathological conditions, and then translated in the clinical setting to verify if the long lasting modulation of the selected network can result in clinical improvement, eventually in the context of placebo-controlled clinical trials. In particular I will provide examples of my previous studies related to the parietal-frontal and cerebellar-cortical interactions that opened the way to clinical trials in which rTMS enhanced neuro-rehabilitation of visuo-spatial neglect in patients with stroke or modulated the effects of levodopa in patients with Parkinson’s disease. I will finally introduce current research projects aimed at assessing longitudinal cortical reorganization during sub-acute stroke recovery and at using rTMS to accelerate recovery of motor functions and gait in patients with stroke by stimulating the cerebellum or to improve cognitive functions in patients with mild cognitive impairment by modulating the default mode network nodes.
Bio: Giacomo Koch is an Italian neurologist and neuroscientist based in Rome with a long-lasting experience in clinical neurophysiology of sensory-motor and cognitive functions. After getting a solid experience at UCL in London on the application of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), he implemented his research using a multidisciplinary approach to combine TMS with magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography. The main goals of his research are to understand the mechanisms underlying cortical plasticity and cortical connectivity in the healthy human brain, in order to develop novel therapeutic approaches for the rehabilitation of stroke and other motor and cognitive disorders. He published more than 140 papers and several book chapters, with an H index of 39.
Bio: Giacomo Koch is an Italian neurologist and neuroscientist based in Rome with a long-lasting experience in clinical neurophysiology of sensory-motor and cognitive functions. After getting a solid experience at UCL in London on the application of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), he implemented his research using a multidisciplinary approach to combine TMS with magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography. The main goals of his research are to understand the mechanisms underlying cortical plasticity and cortical connectivity in the healthy human brain, in order to develop novel therapeutic approaches for the rehabilitation of stroke and other motor and cognitive disorders. He published more than 140 papers and several book chapters, with an H index of 39.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Center for Neuroprosthetics