Professor Christophe Bernard, France : “Whole brain modelling to help patients with neurological disorders”
Speaker:
Professor Christophe Bernard
INSERM and Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes
Aix-Marseille Université, France
Title: “Whole brain modelling to help patients with neurological disorders"
Abstract:
Numerous clinical approaches and basic science projects aim at stimulating/silencing brain regions to obtain specific effects (e.g. deep bran stimulation in Parkinson’s disease) or test hypotheses (opto/chemogenetics). These approaches are empirical. They would benefit from understanding what they really do at the whole brain scale. With the Virtual Brain we can construct individual brain avatars of mice and men to study whole brain dynamics. Our ultimate goal is to predict in silico how to act on an individual brain to obtain a desired effect, and verify these predictions in the individual. I shall present the next evolution of the Virtual Brain that allows the control of cell populations, which led to the discovery that brain activity at rest is organised around discrete cascades of activation and avalanches. I shall present the first results with chemogenetics, showing how the control of one region can affect whole brain activity, thus questioning the way such interventions are interpreted.
About Neuroscience Seminars
Neuroscience seminars at the QBI play a major role in the advancement of neuroscience in the Asia-Pacific region. The primary goal of these seminars is to promote excellence in neuroscience through the exchange of ideas, establishing new collaborations and augmenting partnerships already in place.
Seminars in the QBI Auditorium on Level 7 are held on Wednesdays at 12-1pm, which are sometimes simulcast on Zoom (with approval from the speaker). We also occassionally hold seminars from international speakers via Zoom. The days and times of these seminars will vary depending on the time zone of the speaker. Please see each seminar listed below for details.
