Project description
Reawakening an injured brain
Focal injury refers to damage or dysfunction in a specific area of the brain caused by trauma, stroke, or infection. Focal injury can lead to a range of neurological symptoms, including paralysis, loss of sensation, speech difficulties, and cognitive impairment, depending on the location and extent of the damage. Funded by the European Research Council, the NEMESIS project aims to characterise the effects of focal injury and test the hypothesis that disconnected networks lie in a sleep-like state that impairs communication. Researchers will also test various interventions that combine behavioural training with circuit-based brain stimulation that involves the use of electrical or magnetic impulses to alter neural activity and restore normal brain function.
Objective
Focal brain disorders, including stroke, trauma, and epilepsy, are the main causes of disability and loss of productivity in the world, and carry a cumulative cost in Europe of about 500 billion euro/year. Now, physicians diagnose and treat these conditions as if they were caused by local dysfunction due to the pathological process. However, there is growing evidence that, in most neurological and psychiatric disorders, clinical symptoms reflect widespread network abnormalities. Normalization of such network abnormalities through “circuit-based” stimulation would therefore improve function. However, this form of therapy is currently limited by numerous factors: lack of knowledge about the underlying mechanisms and their behavioural relevance; inability to map these abnormalities onto single patients; and, most importantly, a principled understanding of where and how to stimulate the brain to produce functional recovery.
‘NEMESIS’, from Ancient Greek as “give what is due”, aims to “give an injured brain what is missing”, i.e. restore through stimulation normal activity in dysfunctional brain circuitries. By synergizing people, concepts, and technologies, NEMESIS will first characterize the effects of focal injury at multiple spatial and temporal scales (from whole brain to local circuits). Through the combination of observational (e.g. fMRI, EEG, calcium imaging, LFPs) and causal methods (e.g. electro-magnetic stimulation, optogenetics) NEMESIS will test the hypothesis that disconnected networks lie in a “sleep-like state” that impairs communication. Thirdly, NEMESIS will create whole brain models of structure/function to predict the effect of individual lesions and simulate novel stimulation protocols aimed at “re-awakening” the disconnected brain. Finally, proof-of-concept interventions that combine circuit-based stimulation and behavioural training, guided by modelling and animal studies, will be tested to restore normal activity, and so give back what is due.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologyepilepsy
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinepsychiatry
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistryalkaline earth metals
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologystroke
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy GrantsHost institution
35122 Padova
Italy