Prof. Corbetta’s interview on TG3 Fuori Tg
(Italian only) Prof. Corbetta was interviewed on June 2, 2023
Highlights of news regarding our Center
(Italian only) Prof. Corbetta was interviewed on June 2, 2023
“Il danno strutturale e metabolico corticale nella Sclerosi Multipla. Correlati fisici e cognitivi in pazienti adulti e pediatrici (Structural and metabolic cortical damage in Multiple Sclerosis. Physical and cognitive correlations in adult and pediatric patients), Responsabile Scientifico: Prof. Paolo Gallo”
Deadline for application: 5 June 2023 at 1:00 p.m. CET.
The new call for applying for the PhD Course in Neuroscience (39th cohort) will run from 9th May to 7th June 2023, 1:00 pm CET.
The Neuroscience PhD course covers diverse neuroscience fields, such as circuits and systems, affective, computational, translational and clinical neuroscience, cognitive, behavioral and neuroimaging. PhD students will find a multidisciplinary environment, ranging from bioengineering to medicine, from mathematics to neurobiology, from physics to psychology and statics, and cutting-edge facilities.
For this call there are at least 13 positions available and more than 50 research lines to choose from for planning the research project.
General information about PhD calls and admissions
Admission information about PhD in Neuroscience
Research lines for project proposal
Deadline for application submitting: 7 June 2023, 1:00 pm CET.
by Prof. Giovanna Citti (University of Bologna)
When: March 23rd, 2023 at 3:00 pm
Where: Sala Seminari at VIMM (Via Orus 2, padova)
Abstract: In this seminar I present a geometric model of the motor cortex, joint work with Mazzetti and Sarti.
The first studies of this area, due to Georgopoulos et alii, proved that neurons are sensible to kinematic
variables, as for example direction of motion, velocity or acceleration. More recently, it has
been experimentally proved by Churchland et alii and by Harpaz et alii that the selectivity of neurons
changes in time, giving rise to selectivity of short trajectories of the hand, called movement
fragments.
When: March 16th, 2023 from 10.30 am and March 24th, 2023 from 4.00 pm
Where: Sala dei Giganti, Palazzo Liviano, Padova (March 16th) and Scuola della Carità, Parrocchia san Francesco, Padova (March 24th)
Abstract: “La nuova era del cervello” è il tema dell’edizione 2023 della Settimana mondiale del cervello, che propone due giornate ricche di eventi dedicati alla cittadinanza.
Giovedì 16 marzo 2023: Al mattino didattica per avvicinare i ragazzi ai meccanismi di funzionamento del cervello, soprattutto per sfruttare al meglio le innumerevoli capacità, e un momento musicale con studenti e docenti. Nel pomeriggio un filosofo e uno scienziato si sfideranno nell’interpretazione dei segreti del sonno e dei sogni, fino al punto da confrontarsi su ciò che si sa, si vorrebbe sapere o si può solo accarezzare con l’anima.
When: March 15th and 16th, 2023 – starting at 3:30 p.m.
Where: Aula Ippolito Nievo, Palazzo Bo, Padova
Abstract: Torna l’appuntamento con i seminari della Brain Awareness Week, la settimana internazionale di divulgazione delle neuroscienze.
Gli interventi saranno tenuti da giovani ricercatori dell’Università di Padova appartenenti a cinque diversi dipartimenti accomunati però dallo studio del cervello. I relatori avranno il piacere di accompagnarvi nell’affascinante mondo dei neuroni, nelle loro interazioni sino ai processi cognitivi alla base del nostro pensiero.
L ‘evento, gratuito ed aperto a tutti, si svolge in presenza presso l’Aula Ippolito Nievo, Palazzo Bo.
A third of people suffering from major depressive disorder do not experience a significant improvement in their symptoms even after adequate treatment with two different antidepressant medications.
This common condition, termed treatment-resistant depression (TRD), severely affects the quality of life of millions of people worldwide. TRD is of utmost clinical relevance given the impact of residual depressive symptoms on functioning, the higher risk of recurrence, the lower chances of remission, and the risk of suicide (which is at least twice the rate of those with nonresistant depression), causing long-lasting interpersonal problems and social costs. Given its epidemiological and clinical relevance and the little consensus on whether the neurobiological underpinnings of TRD differ from treatment-sensitive depression (TSD), we aimed to highlight the convergent morphometric and functional neuroimaging correlates of TRD.
Recent evidence suggests that the body image disturbances often observed in patients with anorexia nervosa also extends to the body schema. According to the embodiment approach, the body schema is not only involved in motor execution, but also in tasks that only require a mental simulation of a movement such as motor imagery, mental rotation of bodies, and visuospatial perspective-taking. The aim of the present study was to assess the ability of patients with anorexia in mentally simulate movements.
The sample included 52 patients with acute anorexia and 62 healthy controls.
Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the abnormal expansion of polyglutamine (PolyQ)-encoding CAG triplets in the androgen receptor (AR) gene. AR binds to testosterone and its more potent derivative dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which trigger the activation of androgen receptor and the transcription of genes responsive to testosterone. Several enzymes in the cells (called kinases) can add chemical modifications (phosphorylation) to transcription factors to tightly regulate specific gene expression programs. On the contrary, phosphatases do the opposite job and remove phosphorylation from these proteins. Working together in a concerted way, kinases and phosphatases modify stability, cellular localization and function of transcription factors.
Proff. Alessandro Martini, Paolo Mazzarello, Eugenio Mira, and Albert Mudry – School of Medicine – Padova
When: November 22nd, 5:00 pm, 2022
Where: Aula Morgagni del Policlinico, Via Giustiniani 2, Padova
Abstract: In this book the biography is followed by a synopsis of scientists who followed in Alfonso Corti’s footsteps through the present, offered together with beautiful anatomic reproductions of Corti’s organ. Important followers were Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Swedish anatomist Gustaf Retzius, nominated for the Nobel Prize nine times. Several others have provided new insights into the physiology, biochemistry, and especially, genetics involved in the coordinated development of this organ.
The “Padova Neuroscience Center – PNC” is glad to inform that one of our members, Alessandro Salvalaggio, has been recently awarded a “Poster Award” for the 2022 ANA Annual Meeting in Chicago. Congratulations!
Il premio nasce con un duplice obiettivo. Da un lato si propone di valorizzare i giovani ricercatori e le giovani ricercatrici che operano nel settore delle malattie neurologiche in strutture, università od organizzazioni di ricerca della regione Veneto, territorio di riferimento dell’Associazione di promozione
sociale EsserVI. Inoltre, questo premio si propone di mantenere alta l’attenzione della società su queste patologie, per continuare a dare voce alle migliaia di persone colpite da queste malattie invalidanti. In un paese come l’Italia, che conta oltre un milione di persone che vivono con demenza e circa 3 milioni direttamente o indirettamente coinvolte nell’assistenza dei loro cari, la ricerca riveste un ruolo di fondamentale importanza.
Professore di Neurologia dell’Università di Padova e direttore della Clinica Neurologica dell’Azienda Ospedaliera, è Maurizio Corbetta a ottenere, con un gruppo composto da altri 3 Principal Investigators provenienti dall’Università Statale di Milano e dall’Università Pompeu Fabra e l’ICREA di Barcellona, un finanziamento di quasi 10 milioni di Euro nello schema Synergy Grant
https://www.unipd.it/news/erc-synergy-grant-10-milioni-euro-progetto-nemesis-universit-padova
Closing Meeting of PD_Pal PROJECT, Grant Agreement No 825785
When: Nov 25 and 26, 2022
Where: Palazzo della Salute, Via San Francesco 90, Padova
Abstract: There is a growing awareness of the potential benefit of palliative care interventions in Parkinson’s disease, given its incurable nature and current treatment strategies, which are primarily symptomatic. The high burden of non-motor symptoms that are difficult to manage, the high distress of caregivers, and the high utilization of medical services especially in the last years of life have become evident. Similar to cancer patients, albeit for a longer duration, PD patients have significant (and mounting) unmet physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs and encounter great problems in care coordination and continuity of care.
When: Sept 30, 2022 from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. and Oct 1, 2022 from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Where: Palazzo del Bo, Via VIII Febbraio 2, Padova PD
Abstract: Promossa dall’Università di Padova, la manifestazione Science4All è rivolta a tutta la cittadinanza e mira a comunicare la scienza in modo semplice e divertente con eventi a libero accesso. Nei pomeriggi e nelle sere del 30 settembre e dell’1 ottobre le ricercatrici e i ricercatori dell’Ateneo incontrano tutti i curiosi nelle sedi di Palazzo del Bo, del Complesso Beato Pellegrino e del meraviglioso Orto botanico, patrimonio mondiale UNESCO.
Il Padova Neuroscience Center e la Scuola di Dottorato in Neuroscience saranno presenti a Palazzo del Bo con lo stand “La meraviglia del cervello” per mostrare alcune metodologie di ricerca e le scoperte che hanno migliorato la comprensione del cervello.
When: Sep 26, 2022 starting at 9:00 a.m.
Where: Scuola di Psicologia – Via Venezia, 12, 35131 Padova PD
Abstract: Il XXX congresso della Associazione Italiana di Psicologia si terrà presso la Scuola di Psicologia dell’Università di Padova: le giornate congressuali inizieranno martedì 27 settembre e termineranno venerdì 30 settembre 2022. Lunedì 26 settembre il congresso sarà già attivo: la giornata sarà dedicata alla registrazione e a workshop pre-congressuali.
Il congresso alternerà momenti di scambio tra le Sezioni e momenti di Sezione. Le mattinate (martedì, mercoledì, giovedì e venerdì) saranno per la maggioranza dedicate a momenti scientifici plenari, caratterizzati da simposi di carattere interdisciplinare e relazioni di ricercatrici e ricercatori di chiara fama.
Reduced approach motivation, indexed by reduced emotional responding to pleasant stimuli, and increased cognitive elaboration of unpleasant stimuli, are increasingly considered putative risk factors for depression. A novel approach to simultaneously examine these two processes is to examine time-frequency delta and theta power while participants are exposed to emotional pictures. Indeed, delta power appears to have a functional role in monitoring the motivational relevance of affective cues and in the identification of pleasant/rewarding stimuli and is generated by subcortical regions involved in the motivational system. Whereas theta power reflects the processing of salient events and can be employed to assess cognitive processing during the viewing of affective content.
The study ‘Recovery of neural dynamics criticality in personalized whole brain models of stroke‘ published in Nature Communications, fruit of an international collaboration among physicists, neurologists, psychologists, and PNC members Samir Suweis, Marco Zorzi and Maurizio Corbetta, proposes the theory of brain criticality to explain brain-behavior relationships in neurological patients.
Criticality is a physical state at the transition between order and disorder, and previous studies had shown that healthy brains work at criticality.
This study shows that patients affected by stroke present at three months decreased levels of neural activity, decreased entropy, and decreased strength of functional connections.
To date, there is no consensus on how to semi-quantitatively assess brain amyloid PET.
Researchers used data from 85 patients who underwent dual time-point PET/MRI acquisitions. The correlations with a gold standard (SI) were computed and the methods compared with the visual assessment.
Each quantifier exhibited excellent agreement with visual assessment and strong correlation with SI (average AUC = 0.99, ρ = 0.91). Among the other methods, TDr came closest to the reference with less implementation complexity.
The ability of techniques integrating blood perfusion to depict age-related variations in amyloid load in amyloid-negative subjects demonstrates the goodness of the estimate.
What are the cognitive abilities of a newly hatched zebrafish? A research from the University of Padova found that hatchings are able to associate a visual stimulus with presence of food. Learning occurs much faster in larvae than in adult zebrafish, requiring less than 48h to establish an association.
This feature was exploited to assess the capacity of larval zebrafish to recognize objects. Larvae can easily discriminate two objects by their color or shape. They can also perceive more complex visual properties, being able to discriminate two identical objects with a different spatial orientation or an object from its mirror image.
Neuroscience PhD Retreat will take place on 20 and 21 May in Asiago, Vicenza: the right moment for PhD students and faculty for sharing their ideas, perspectives and experience. There will be a focus on the goals already achieved, improvement suggestions and the path ahead.
(Italian Only) Prof. Corbetta was interviewed on March 31th, 2022
(Italian version only) Article on “Il Gazzettino”, March 31th, 2022
(Italian version only) “La Piazza Web” talks about the upcoming event.
(Italian version only) Article on the March 29th edition of “Il Mattino di Padova”
(Italian version only) Interview on “Il Mattino di Padova”, March 29th, 2022
Carola Dell’Acqua and Elisa Dal Bò, both Doctoral students at PNC working with the psychophysiology lab of the Department of General Psychology, have recently published a longitudinal study aimed at examining whether the predictive role of anxiety on the development of pandemic-related post-traumatic stress symptoms was modulated by individual differences in neural activity during the processing of emotional stimuli.
Monica Margoni and Umberto Villani, both PhD students of the 34° cycle of the PhD Course in Neuroscience, have recently published the article called “Neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging discloses early changes in the normal-appearing white matter in paediatric multiple sclerosis” on the “Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry”.
Low-frequency brain fluctuations during spontaneous activity reflect transitions between generic priors consisting of low-dimensional representations and connectivity patterns of the most frequent behavioral states.
In 2021 The Brain Prize, the world’s largest award for neuroscience, was awarded to
Jes Olesen, Lars Edvinsson, Peter Goadsby and Michael Moskowitz for their work on
the causes and treatment of migraine.
The Brain Prize seminar series on migraine and headache consists of 12 seminars from
international leaders in the field including the 2021 Brain Prize winners.
The series started in April 2021 and it will end in March 2022 and covers topics including
mechanistic studies in patients and animal models, genetics of migraine, cluster- and
post-traumatic headache, and treatment of migraine and headache disorders.
Prof. Daniela Pietrobon, affiliated with the “Padova Neuroscience Center-PNC”, on October 28th, 2021 at 4:00 PM CET will talk about “Migraine – a disorder of E-I balance?
Avviso di indagine di mercato
Indagine di mercato finalizzata all’affidamento diretto tramite mercato elettronico (MEPA) ai sensi dell’art. 1, comma 2,lett. a) del D.L. 76/2020 (convertito con Legge 11 settembre 2020, n. 120) della fornitura di un Elettroencefalografo (EEG) e di un Eye-Tracker portatili ed integrati in modo che sia possibile la sincronizzazione del segnale EEG con quello dell’Eye-Tracker per l’Universita’ degli Studi di Padova – Centro di Ateneo Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC) – CUP C24I19002710006
Scadenza per la presentazione delle istanze è il 30 aprile 2021 alle ore 12:00
The videos of the 2021 Distinguished Lecture Series of the “Padova Neuroscience Center-PNC” are now available on PNC Mediaspace
“Many animals fall for the same optical illusions we do, providing clues about how evolution shapes visual perception.”
The work of prof. Agrillo has been cited on the National Geographic site
Find below all the official communications from our University regarding the COVID-1 pandemic.
A talk by Claudia A. M. Gandini Wheeler-Kingshott, University College London.
When: June 28th, 2018
May 17th, 2018: “The importance of central-peripheral communication: a neurovisceral integration perspective”
A talk by Prof. Julian F. Thayer, Ohio State University, OH, USA.
May 31st, 2018: “Brain networks and neuropsychological disorders in stroke”
A talk by Dr. Antonello Baldassarre: IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo – Neuromed, Italy.
May 7th, 2018: “Advances in Placebo Effects”
A talk by Prof. Irving Kirsch, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, MA, USA.
May 24th, 2018: “Detection costs and Identification benefits for cued objects: From peripheral cueing to semantic congruency”
A talk by Prof. Juan Lupiañez Castillo, Universidad de Granada, Spain
April 12nd, 2018: “A computational model of shared fine-scale structure in high-dimensional cortical information spaces”
A talk by Prof. James Haxby, Dartmouth College, NH, USA.
March 29th, 2018: “Optical dissection of the neural circuits underlying sensory perception in the mouse cortex”
A talk by Prof. Tommaso Fellin, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (GE).