Brain Conn. Center

The Brain Connectivity Center of the Mondino Foundation was established with the idea of combining the researches on the central nervous system function (at cellular-molecular level and at anatomo-functional level) with the clinical observations in a variety of neurological disorders, with the aim of identifying new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

BCC ORGANIZATION  

MAIN RESEARCH FIELDS

see also our web-page on “techniques used“

  1. Connectivity and brain circuits function:
    • Spatial temporal properties of neural circuits activity and plasticity (high resolution imaging, MEA, fMRI, EEG).
    • Functional relations between brain centers (cortical circuits, brain-cerebellar circuits, basal-brain circuits, spinal-brain circuits).
    • Brain circuits functional anomalies in sensory-motor pathologies and in emotional-cognitive field.
  2. Brain rhythms and consciousness:
    • Brain rhythms organizations in physiologic and pathological conditions in humans and in laboratory animals: EEG, cycle sleep/wakefulness cycle analysis, memory enhancement, consciousness.
    • Learning and memory rhythms: humans and laboratory animals analysis.
    • Cellular and circuital substrates of the brain rhythms generation.
  3. Neuroplasticity, learning and memory:
    • protein synthesis and gene expression learning/memory mechanisms in humans and laboratory animals.
    • Learning and memory dysfunctions in human patologies (epilepsies, Alzheimer, Parkinson…).
    • Molecular and cellular mechanisms of long-term synaptic plasticity.
    • Meta-plasticity (cholinergic and monoaminergic role in neurotransmission).
  4. Cellular and molecular neuropatology:
    • Neural functions (ion-channels and receptors, membrane function, transmission and synaptic modulation).
    • Laboratory animals for molecular pathology (channel-pathologies), synaptic disfunction, abnormal development, neurodegeneration.
    • Genotyping of related human pathologies (ataxies, migraine, dystonic attacks, epilepsies, prions pathologies, neurodegeneration, development disorders, thought disorders).
  5. Neuroscience techniques:
    • Functional neuroimaging (fMRI), EEG, image analysis.
    • Cellular imaging (VSD, calcium imaging).
    • Recording and stimulation electrophysiological tecniques.
    • Mathematicsl models.
    • EEG and MEG spectrum analysis.

INTEGRATED APPROACH

The main purpose of BCC is to examine in depth the physiopathology of several disorders through an integrated approach between the Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Prof. Egidio D’Angelo (University of Pavia), with a number of laboratories and Research Centers of Mondino Foundation:

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