Speakers: August 2012

        Title of Talk: Dynamical diseases: a historical perspective with an eye to the future  Abstract: In the 1970’s, Uwe an der Heiden, Leon Glass and Michael C. Mackey, pointed out that an intimate relationship exists between the mathematical field of nonlinear dynamics and the dynamics of medical illness.   This observation led [...]

Title of Talk: A mathematical framework for understanding epileptic dynamics  Abstract: Electroencephalographic recordings during epileptic seizures often show distinct transitions to and from seizure-related rhythms. In the literature, these epileptic rhythms are mostly described with reference to a small number of prototypic wave forms. From a dynamical systems point of view, a general approach can [...]

Peter Neal Taylor Title of Talk: Large Scale Modelling of Epileptic Activity Abstract: Electroencephalographic recordings in humans reveal highly complex nonlinear activity in both space and time.  During epileptic absence seizures this activity becomes more synchronised in space and often temporally follows a specific waveform commonly referred to as spike-wave discharges the underlying mechanisms for which are still poorly understood. [...]

Title of Talk: Sleep patterns, metabolic syndrome & metabolic memory formation S.M. Schmid – Medizinische Klinik 1, Universität zu Lübeck Abstract: Sleep disorders, sleep fragmentation, and chronic reduced sleep duration are increasingly common in our modern 24-h societies. In parallel, incidence of the metabolic syndrome and its key components, i.e. type 2 diabetes and obesity, is [...]

Title of Talk: Complex systems: compensatory mechanisms in the stress axis Abstract: The body’s response to stress involves a tightly regulated hormonal system. This HPA axis involves activation of the hypothalamus (H) to release CRH, which acts on the pituitary (P) to produce ACTH, which in turn, elicits the release of glucocorticoids from the adrenal [...]

Title of Talk: Modelling the phenomenology of clinical EEG: Towards predictive biomarkers in epilepsy  Abstract: In this presentation we explore the mechanisms that determine dynamic transitions between healthy and seizure states in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGE). We focus on the interplay between dynamics in specific brain regions and the connectivity structure between them, [...]

Title of Talk: Brain-State Dependencies Abstract: The brain continuously undergoes state transitions that can, for example, be measured as fluctuations in functional connectivity between brain regions. In my presentation, I will point out how experimental and theoretical studies can complement each other to understand the dynamic processes that drive brain state transitions and their functional [...]

Title of Talk: Controling epileptic seizures by closed-loop stimulation of subcortical structures Antoine Depaulis, Sandrine Saillet, Colin Deransart and Olivier David Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences Inserm U836 – Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble, France Abstract: The alternation of epileptic seizures with interictal periods – which last from a few hours to several months – suggests the [...]

Title of Talk: EEG-fMRI of epileptic dynamics in humans  Abstract: The talk will start with an introduction to EEG-fMRI in patients with epilepsy. Networks in patients with focal and generalised epilepsy in both interictal and ictal activity will be described. The talk will then focus on studies on human absence seizures: Static and dynamic analyses [...]

Title of Talk: Investigating Prolactin Transcription Dynamics within the Pituitary  Abstract: Transcription is a fundamental process in biology, specifying the identity and function of cells and thus organism physiology. The regulation of transcription is complex, involving numerous pathways from the spatial organisation of the DNA within the nucleus and chromatin conformation to the recruitment of [...]