<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> </head> <body> Boa tarde Nota: por uma questão de gestão de espaço, para quem tencionar participar agradecemos que envie, ainda hoje, um email para <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:lara@isr.uc.pt">lara@isr.uc.pt</a> Com os melhores cumprimentos -- Urbano J. Nunes <div class="moz-forward-container"> ------------------------------------------------------------ Local: Anfiteatro do ISR Data/Hora: 07/03/2022, com início às 14h30 <div>Título da Palestra: Neurorobotics model of Parkinson's Disease & Spiking Neural Networks Applications Orador: Assistant Professor Dr. Renan C. Moioli (Digital Metropolis Institute (IMD) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil) In this talk, I will first describe our work on developing a neurorobotics model of Parkinson's Disease (PD). PD is a neurodegenerative disorder, linked to the death of dopaminergic neurons at the substantia nigra pars compacta, which affects the normal dynamics of the basal ganglia-thalamus-cortex (BG-T-C) neuronal circuit of the brain. Although there are multiple mechanisms underlying the disease, a complete description of those mechanisms and molecular pathogenesis are still missing, and there is still no cure. In our computational model, we performed a data-driven approach in which a set of biologically constrained parameters is optimised using evolutionary computation. Evolved models successfully resembled spectral signatures of local field potentials and single-neuron mean firing rates from healthy and parkinsonian marmoset monkey brain data. Eventually, we hope that our work may facilitate the investigation of the mechanisms of PD and support the development of new therapies. Then, in the final part of the talk, I'll highlight how spiking neural networks with biophysically plausible neural architectures, such as the one developed in our project, are being used in diverse applications. These networks are often faster and require less energy to operate, and may benefit from novel neuromorphic implementations. Short Bio Dr. Renan C. Moioli is an assistant professor at the Digital Metropolis Institute (IMD) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, where he is also part of the Graduate Program in Bioinformatics. He has a D. Phil. in Cognitive Science from the University of Sussex (2013), UK, working at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR). From 2013 to 2018 he was a research fellow at the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience, Brazil. His research interests are in the fields of computational intelligence and intelligent robotics. He is currently a UK Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellow, working in close collaboration with Dr. Patricia Vargas and Heriot-Watt's Robotics Laboratory in the project "Neuro4PD: neurorobotics model of Parkinson's Disease". </div> <div> </div> </div> </body> </html>