Our methods presented on the 17th European Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology in Warsaw 21 June 2019 – Posted in: news – Tags: Active electrode, Akdeniz University, Brain, Cagdas Topcu, Clinical Neurophysiology, Congress, Doctoral, early stage researcher, ECoG, EEG, Hilmi Uysal, Mayo Clinic, Memory, neurology, Neuroscience, presentation, Science, signal processing, Warsaw

Cagdas Topcu – the early stage researcher in our BME lab – shared his ideas on the largest gathering of clinical neurophysiologists in Europe, which took place this June in the capital of Poland. His presentation entitled: ‘Data-driven selection of active iEEG channels during verbal memory task performance’ described new approaches to fully automatic and patient-specific selection of electrodes with meaningful electrophysiological activities recorded in patients trying to remember list of words. The goal of his work was to increase reliability and objectivity in selecting signals used for brain stimulation, clinical evaluation, or studies of memory and other cognitive functions. The results were selected for publication as a conference paper in Clinical Neurophysiology journal:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1388245719304948

Cagdas also attended a series of courses about processing and analysis of electrophysiological signals from the human brain and about their relevance for understanding and treating epilepsy.

Moreover, he helped to organize a Facial Reinnervation and Function Symposium with our collaborator from Akdeniz University (Turkey), neurology professor, Hilmi Uysal. This work summarized Cagdas’ previous results obtained with face transplant patients, showing his determination to reach out and translate his research to real clinical problems:

‘Following up the reinnervation is a remarkable topic in full-face transplantation which usually completes within nine months. On the other hand, reinnervation does not mean to regain the complete function. Recovery of facial expressions improves nonverbal communication, but reinnervation of muscle and skin is a complex process. Moreover, it is predictable to have plastic changes in primary and secondary association cortices following total loss of innervation. Face transplantation patients generally have different backgrounds and exhibit different degrees of sensorimotor improvement. Therefore, each case needs to be treated individually. The complexity of facial nerves and randomness of reinnervation may be responsible for unexpected observations of aberrant reinnervation and synkinesis after facial transplantation. In this symposium, we presented and discussed neurophysiological approach to individualized rehabilitation strategies after full-face transplantation.’

Now we are looking forward to reaching out to those with deficits in memory and cognition…