BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Revealing the Spatial Pattern of Brain Hemodynamic Sensitivity to 
 Healthy Aging through Sparse Dynamic Causal Model - Dr Giorgia Baron\, Dep
 artment of Information Engineering\, University of Padova\, Italy.
DTSTART:20250210T123000Z
DTEND:20250210T133000Z
UID:TALK226303@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dace Apšvalka
DESCRIPTION:*Speaker:* Dr Giorgia Baron\, Department of Information Engine
 ering\, University of Padova\, Italy. \n\n*Title:* Revealing the Spatial P
 attern of Brain Hemodynamic Sensitivity to Healthy Aging through Sparse Dy
 namic Causal Model.\n\n*Abstract:* Age-related changes in the BOLD respons
 e could reflect neurovascular coupling modifications rather than simply im
 pairments in neural functioning. In this study\, we propose the use of a s
 parse dynamic causal model (sDCM) to decouple neuronal and vascular factor
 s in the BOLD signal\, with the aim of characterizing the whole-brain spat
 ial pattern of hemodynamic sensitivity to healthy aging\, as well as to te
 st the role of hemodynamic features as independent predictors in an age-cl
 assification model. sDCM was applied to the resting-state functional magne
 tic resonance imaging data of a cohort of 126 healthy individuals in a wid
 e age range (31 females)\, providing reliable estimates of the hemodynamic
  response function (HRF) for each subject and each region of interest. The
 n\, some features characterizing each HRF curve were extracted and used to
  fit a multivariate logistic regression model predicting the age class of 
 each individual. Ultimately\, we tested the final predictive model on an i
 ndependent dataset of 338 healthy subjects (173 females) selected from the
  Human Connectome Project in Aging and Development cohorts. Our results en
 tail the spatial heterogeneity of the age effects on the hemodynamic compo
 nent\, since its impact resulted to be strongly region- and population-spe
 cific\, discouraging any space-invariant–corrective procedures that atte
 mpt to correct for vascular factors when carrying out functional studies i
 nvolving groups with different ages. Moreover\, we demonstrated that a str
 ong interaction exists between certain right-hemisphere hemodynamic featur
 es and age\, further supporting the essential role of the hemodynamic fact
 or as an independent predictor of biological ageing rather than a simple c
 onfounding variable.\n\nSee the published paper here: https://doi.org/10.1
 523/JNEUROSCI.1940-23.2024\n\n*Bio:* Giorgia Baron earned her master’s d
 egree in Bioengineering in September 2020 from the University of Padua. He
 r master’s thesis focused on applying a sparse Dynamic Causal Modeling (
 DCM) algorithm to analyze stroke-induced alterations in whole-brain direct
 ed connectivity using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging 
 (fMRI) data\, which earned her an award from the National Group of Bioengi
 neering in 2021. She later pursued a Ph.D. in Information Engineering\, sp
 ecializing in Bioengineering\, at the University of Padua\, focusing on th
 e intricate mechanisms of human brain function through dynamic causal mode
 ling of resting-state fMRI data. Currently\, as a post-doctoral researcher
  at the Neuropsychology Laboratory of IRCCS San Camillo\, she investigates
  neuroimaging data from patients with stroke\, Parkinson’s disease\, and
  mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to better understand their cognitive corr
 elations.\n\n*Venue:* MRC CBU West Wing Seminar Room and Zoom https://us02
 web.zoom.us/j/82385113580?pwd=RmxIUmphQW9Ud1JBby9nTDQzR0NRdz09 (Meeting ID
 : 823 8511 3580\; Passcode: 299077)
LOCATION: MRC-CBU\, 15 Chaucer Road\, Cambridge
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR