VPH Project NoTremor organises a Satellite Workshop at VPH2016

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease and is expected to impose an increasing social and economic burden on societies as populations age. The core pathological feature of PD is degeneration in midbrain dopamine systems. These systems supply dopamine to the basal ganglia – a set of subcortical nuclei critical for motor control – and in particular to the striatum, the main input nucleus therein. Computational models of the basal ganglia have been proposed in the past, targeting mainly high level-action decision making and habitual control. However, these models do not make a direct link to motor behavior via the musculo-motor system in humans, and perforce, cannot be tailored to individual patient actions and movements.

The ultimate vision of NoTremor is to meet this grand challenge and change the way Parkinson’s disease is considered. The project targets the provision of a patient specific computational model of relevant neurotransmitter systems, the basal ganglia, and the neuromuscular system that will be subsequently used in the context of a simulation-based clinical decision support system to improve the quality of analysis, prediction and progression of Parkinson’s disease through a holistic, layered, parametric virtual patient model, describing the neural pathology, coupled with the propagated muscular and motor activity.

The scope of the satellite event is to provide a platform for new ideas, achievements and implementations in the field of computational modeling for PD. Discussions will include, but are not limited to, the latest scientific and technical outcomes of NoTremor. 

Topics include (but are not limited to):

• Brain modeling and simulation for PD at all scales of analysis: from neural membranes to systems
• Neuromuscular simulation and its interaction with brain modelling
• Modelling of motor control
• Subcortical LFP modelling
• Clinical assessment (typically performed for neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease)
• New ICT measurement techniques (e.g. oculometry, biomechanical movements, latencies, dynamics)
• Simulation platforms
• Information visualization and visual analytics for PD

Researchers are invited to submit their work to the satellite event on “Multi-Scale Modeling and Simulation and Analytics for Parkinson’s disease” following the deadlines, rules and formatting guidelines of the VPH 2016 conference.

More information can be found here: http://vph-conference.org/program/detailed-program/tuesday/satellite3/