Free webinar by Prof. Claudio Babiloni entitled “Alpha and Alzheimer’s Disease: Has Berger’s Dream Come True?”
The webinar celebrates the century from the discovery of human EEG alpha rhythms by Hans Berger (1924) on World Alzheimer's Day, which takes place every September 21.
World Alzheimer's Day is a global effort to raise awareness and challenges around Alzheimer's disease and other disorders related to aging. Hans Berger dreamed of EEG as a crucial tool for understanding brain function and dysfunction, including senile dementia. Has his dream come true?
September 21, 2024
at 04:00 p.m. CEST (Italian, German, and French time) = 10:00 a.m. US Eastern Daylight Time
Join the online Zoom free webinar at
https://uniroma1.zoom.us/j/82758967660?pwd=TCwaSwPveFIqGOZrM3hZAt9C9iGDuF.1
Alpha and Alzheimer’s Disease: Has Berger’s Dream Come True?
In this talk, Prof. Claudio Babiloni will revisit Hans Berger's pioneering discovery of human resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms and their association with transitions in vigilance and consciousness under both physiological and pathological conditions. Berger dreamed of EEG as a crucial tool for understanding brain function and dysfunction, including senile dementia. Has the Berger’s Dream Come True?
The talk will explore Berger’s dream in light of recent international clinical guidelines, including those from the US National Institute of Aging – Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA) and European Neuroscientific Societies, which outline the use of biomarkers for assessing Alzheimer's disease across stages from mild cognitive impairment to mild-to-moderate dementia. Those guidelines currently deem the diagnostic value of EEG biomarkers to be very limited. In contrast, many studies showed significant abnormalities in alpha and other EEG rhythms recorded in Alzheimer’s disease patients during a resting-state condition of quiet vigilance. These abnormalities may reflect cortical arousal and quiet vigilance dysfunctions in those patients due to a derangement in thalamocortical functional connectivity and their modulation by subcortical and brainstem systems. Incorporating EEG biomarkers in the disease clinical guidelines could improve the monitoring of AD progression in relation to those non-cognitive symptoms erroneously disregarded, given their impact on the quality of experience (e.g., reading newspapers). This would bring Hans Berger's vision of EEG’s clinical utility in dementia closer to full realization.
Prof. Claudio Babiloni received a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at Aalborg University (Denmark). He is currently a Full Professor of Physiology at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “V. Erspamer,” Sapienza University of Rome.
His main scientific interests include the role of brain rhythms in the regulation of cortical arousal and vigilance/consciousness level in aging. He is particularly interested in the abnormalities in that regulation in patients with the main progressive neurodegenerative diseases leading to cognitive deficits and dementia, such as Alzheimer's, Lewy body, and Parkinson's. The primary methods of this research are quantitative EEG and neuroimaging (mostly magnetic resonance imaging) techniques. He founded an international Consortium, The PDWAVES Consortium (www.pdwaves.eu), to promote that research line. His publications have an H-index of 96 and > 25,000 citations (Google Scholar).
Info: Prof. Claudio Babiloni (claudio.babiloni@uniroma1.it)