Symposiums

SYMPOSIUM 1

SHAPES Symposium
Shaping a Pan-European Technological Ecosystem for Active and Healthy Ageing

Organisers: Ioanna Dratsiou, Annita Varella,
Evangelia Romanopoulou, Panagiotis Bamidis,
Malcolm MacLachlan, Oindrila Dutta, Michael Cooke

The European population is ageing fast. The ageing population will translate into different demands for health-related products and services and requiring an overall reorganization of leisure. The promotion of healthy ageing is thus a growing policy priority.

SHAPES aims to create the first European open Ecosystem enabling the large-scale deployment of a broad range of digital solutions for supporting and extending healthy and independent living for older individuals who are facing permanently or temporarily reduced functionality and capabilities. SHAPES Large-scale Piloting campaign engages +2k older individuals in 15 pilot sites in 10 EU Member States, including 6 EIP on AHA Reference Sites, and involves hundreds of key stakeholders to bring forth solutions to improve the health, wellbeing, independence, and autonomy of older individuals, while enhancing the long-term sustainability of health and care systems in Europe. Being an integral part of the Health and Care Cluster Projects, a cluster among the main Horizon2020-financed research projects established by the European Commission, SHAPES working groups leads the Working Group on dissemination.

The aim of this symposium is to present an overview of knowledge in improving health and quality of life of older people, supporting the long-term sustainability and efficiency of health and social care systems, and fostering innovation and digital transformation in the field of active and healthy ageing. Generated knowledge, methodologies, platforms, digital solutions, and services will be presented under the scope of promoting active and healthy ageing of older people. Essential experiences and lessons learned will be also introduced on a panel discussion addressing better understanding in terms of the sustainability of European projects digital platforms and their competitiveness in inspiring European regions to deliver better policies regarding this societal challenge.

PROGRAM

9.00 – 10.00 Active and Healthy Ageing

  •  SHAPES project: α pan-European ecosystem for Smart and Healthy Ageing 
  • Cognitive decline in ageing populations and new technologies 
  • BRAINCODE for reducing late diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders in older people: pilot-study

 10.00 – 11.00 Panel Discussion: Sustainability of digital platforms; challenges and lessons learned

 10.50 – 11.00 Liaison with other projects

AKNOWLEDGEMENT

This work was supported by the SHAPES Project (Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems) Horizon 2020 project (No. 857159).

SYMPOSIUM 2

Clinical Applications of Neurophysiology in the Management of Neuromusculoskeletal Patients

1. Christos Kefalas,
1. Maria Pitsikali,
1,2. Konstantinos Kasimis

1. Association of Manual Physiotherapists of Greece
2. Department of Physiotherapy, School of Health Sciences, International Hellenic University

Despite the large number of techniques used in the rehabilitation of neuromusculoskeletal disorders, a lot of questions remain unanswered.

However, the development of the science of neurophysiology in recent years seems to pose a new perspective in the understanding, evaluation, and treatment of neuromusculoskeletal disorders. Recent research evidence regarding the control of the motor system by the brain, provided important information on how the brain integrates sensory-motor information (visualvestibular system, somatosensory stimuli) and renders them as a kinetic result.

In addition, advances in neuroimaging helped in the identification of neural areas related to chronic pain. Structural and functional changes in brain structures accompany chronic pain. It is believed that such changes may be reversible because of neuroplasticity. It is essential to develop therapeutic approaches utilizing neuroplasticity that could be used in the management of chronic pain.

In this symposium, there will be a review of recent research data related to postural and movement control changes of neuromusculoskeletal patients as well as their association to chronic pain. Clinical findings, coming from the objective evaluation of patients, will be analyzed under a different perception, according to data that emerged from adjacent to physiotherapy research fields. New ideas also, will be introduced on the rehabilitation of neuromusculoskeletal patients, leading to new therapeutic concepts.

PROGRAM

Symposium chairs: Savvas Mavromoustakos, Georgios Rogdakis

  • 25′ Kefalas Christos PT-OMPT, MSc

Applied Neurophysiology in the Analysis of Neuromusculoskeletal Patients

  • 25′ Pitsikali Maria PT-OMPT, MSc

Clinical Applications of Neurophysiology for Neuromusculoskeletal Patients

  • 25′ Kasimis Konstantinos PT-OMPT, MSc, PhD candidate

Neuroplasticity and Chronic Pain

  • 15′ Chairs Discussions & conclusions

KEYWORDS

human movement control, body schema, postural control, chronic pain, neuroplasticity

SYMPOSIUM 3

Clinical applications of brain mapping

Organizers: Prof. Nikolaos Foroglou, Prof. Vassilis Kimiskidis
School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Brain mapping generally involves the study of function correlated with anatomy and incorporates different modalities ranging from imaging, neurophysiology,  immunohistochemistry, molecular and ontogenetic studies, stem cell, cellular biology and engineering disciplines. Few of these modalities reach the clinical settings.

The symposium will focus on modalities used in daily clinical practice for neurological disorders. Starting from basic concepts, applications, limitations and different combinations the panel will present updated data for clinicians and researchers interested in neurological diseases.

A final discussion on lateralization techniques will compare different available modalities.

PROGRAM

Alexandra Touroutoglou
Functional magnetic resonance imaging

Sylvain Baillet
Magnetoencephalography

Vasilios K. Kimiskidis
Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Nikolaos Foroglou
Direct brain stimulation

Charis Styliadis
Electroencephalography

Panel discussion

SYMPOSIUM 4

DRUG CLINICAL TRIALS AND COGNITIVE SAFETY ASSESSMENT

Papazisis George (Clinical Research Unit, School of Medicine, Aristotle University Thessaloniki):
Pre-marketing drug clinical trials and cognitive effects

Siafis Spyridon (Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich):
Cognitive safety of CNS drugs

– Liozidou Athanasia (Henry Dunant Hospital Center):
Neuropsychological assessment of cognitive safety in drug development

Assessment of safety and tolerability (e.g., cardiovascular effects, changes in liver enzymes, neurological events, etc.) is a crucial component of early-phase clinical studies. Many central nervous system (CNS) and non-CNS compounds have the potential to affect cognitive ability. Any drug that is CNS penetrant (i.e., crosses the blood–brain barrier) can influence cognition through effects on neurotransmitter systems.

Cognitive safety is defined as the impact of clinical treatments on the ability to perceive, process, understand, and store information, make decisions and produce appropriate responses.

Currently, the majority of CNS drug clinical trials rely on neuropsychological endpoints for establishing efficacy, safety, and tolerability. Neuropsychological testing is the current standard for measuring the effect of drugs clinical trials on cognitive, motor, behavioral, linguistic and executive functioning. Furthermore, regulatory authorities’ expectations warrant the use of specific, targeted, and sensitive cognitive safety assessments. According to the FDA ‘all drugs, including drugs intended for non-CNS indications, should be evaluated for adverse effects on the CNS. The occurrence of adverse CNS events in even a small number of phase 1 subjects can indicate the need for more focused studies of CNS effects. Measures of reaction time, divided attention, selective attention, and memory may be appropriate’.

Aim of this symposium is to present an overview of existing assessment tools of cognition that can be integrated into drug trials in order to provide a cognitive footprint. We suggest that such tests should be administered as a standard throughout the key assessment stages of the design of the trial. Provision of such a cognitive footprint profile of drugs may provide the necessary evidence to enable decision-makers to make informed decisions on risk-benefit analysis. Clear understanding of the existing regulatory guidance and effective employment of validated neuropsychological instruments in conjunction with other biomarkers are paving the way for more concrete endpoints in the evaluation of novel therapies that answer critical unmet clinical needs.

KEYWORDS

drug clinical trials cognitive safety neuropsychological assessment

SYMPOSIUM 5

ThessRoboGlove Forum – Thessaloniki wearable robotics gloves and apparel knowledge exchange and cooperation Forum

Dr. Alkinoos Athanasiou,
Dr. Alexander Astaras,

Assoc. Prof. Markos Tsipouras,
Prof. Panagiotis D. Bamidis

Precision robotics for accurate reproduction of natural motor output of human upper extremities have been developed for use in assistive medicine and rehabilitation, in industry and in communication and media sections. The rapid expansion of wearable technologies, facilitated by the boom and popularization of rapid prototyping techniques has led to the conception and creation of novel wearable robotic gloves for rehabilitation applications.

While the field features many challenges due to, in part, the particularities and complexity of human hand function, more often than not research teams work in parallel but not in communication, running into similar neurophysiological R&D challenges. This symposium proposal aims to bring together research teams that work in similar wearable robotic glove and hand technologies in the wider Thessaloniki and Northern Greece area in order to facilitate knowledge exchange and promote cooperation.

PROGRAM

  • 5′ Alkinoos Athanasiou

Introduction to ThessRoboGlove Forum initiative

  • 20′ Vasiliki Fiska

NeuroSuitUp/HEROES project

  • 20′ Georgia Dimitriou

SmartGlove project

  • 20′ Konstantinos Mitsopoulos

Insights during development trials of the NeuroSuitUp platform: user experience and perception of robotics 

  • 5′ Markos Tsipouras

Common goals and conclusions, drive to cooperate

  • 20′ Discussion (coordination: Alexander Astaras)

SYMPOSIUM 6

Updates on the Frontal Midline Theta (Fmθ) Neurofeedback (NF) Protocols
for Improving Executive Functions

Speakers:
1. Prof. Dr. Shulan Hsieh: Fm theta neurofeedback in elderly
2. Dr. Kathrin Eschmann: Fm theta neurofeedback in healthy controls
3. Dr. Stefanie Enriquez-Geppert: Fm theta neurofeedback in pilots
4. Diede Smit: Fm theta neurofeedback in a subclinical group

In the first talk, Shulan Hsieh (National Cheng Kung University Tainan, Taiwan) will present the efficacy of a 12-session Fmθ training for improving attention and working memory performance in healthy older people. Her research thus replicates the findings of Wang and Hsieh (2013) and provides more solid evidence for the effectiveness of this protocol. In the second presentation, Kathrin Eschmann (Cardiff University Brain Research, UK) will talk about a 7-session Fmθ training with healthy students.

This study investigated whether the protocol improves proactive rather than reactive processes of cognitive control, as previous research had suggested. In contrast to the sham group, Fmθ increased during NF in the experimental group, with transferred to performance on the proactive task rather than the reactive task evident after almost two weeks and correlated with Fmθ increase during NF.

In the third talk, Stefanie Enriquez-Geppert (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) presents the collaboration with Prof. Frédéric Dehais (ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulous) on a study investigating a 8-session Fmθ training to improve executive functions (EF) and flight performance in pilots. A hybrid test of EF and the multi-attribute task battery were studied before and after NF. Furthermore, flight performance under increased cognitive demand (operationalized by an additional task) was assessed (only) after training in a flight simulator.

Preliminary result indicate improved cognitive performance in sub-areas of both test batteries in the experimental group, which also shows improved navigation performance of flight performance in the simulator and higher accuracy in the additional task compared to the sham group.

Finally, Diede Smit (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) will discuss a study with 8-session Fmθ training in a subclinical group with subjective EF complaints in daily life with or without a mental illness.

The results showed higher Fmθ changes during the course of NF in the experimental compared to the sham group, which translated to the performance on some of the EF tasks. The results extend the findings of Enriquez-Geppert et al. (2014), of improvements in EF not only in healthy young individuals, but also in a subclinical group with a wide age range.

The symposium will conclude by assessing the transfer phase of the Fmθ NF protocol from the laboratory to application by discussing a mega-analysis, combining data from different studies.

OBJECTIVE

This symposium provides an overview of the current status of Fmθ upregulation NF as peak performance training and as possible clinical intervention.

SYMPOSIUM 7

Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics

Dr. Alkinoos Athanasiou,
Dr. Aristeidis Vrahatis,
Assoc. Prof. Phivos Mylonas

MSc Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics, School of Science & Technology, Hellenic Open University, Patras Greece

 This proposed symposium firstly aims at highlighting and discussing important and emerging research topics in the areas of Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics, including topics in computational biology, neural engineering, genomics and proteomics and neurophysiology.

Second, this symposium aims at providing a forum for students and teaching staff of the MSc of Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics of the Hellenic Open University to present their research work from their respective educational objects. Such a forum not only promotes the conduct of science in the framework of a new and novel MSc course but also improves the quality of post-graduate studies in a field relevant to Applied Neurosciences. It also aims to bring MSc students from various backgrounds closer to the concept of Applied Neurosciences through their participation in the SAN conference.

PROGRAM

Symposium chairs: Alkinoos Athanasiou, Aristeidis Vrahatis, Phivos Mylonas

  • 5′ Phivos Mylonas

Introduction to Bioinformatics & Neuroinformatics Symposium

  • 20′ Christina Lamproudi

A clinical phenotype-driven serious game neurofeedback application for adhd

  • 20′ Maria Myrsini Gounari

Graph-based approaches in the road for network biomarkers for complex diseases

  • 20′ Zafeiropoulou Ioanna

Study of autism spectrum disorder phenotypes imprints in electroencephalography

  • 20′ Ifigeneia Loukoumi

Neuronal circuits of hearing and modelling of auditory processing using functional connectivity

  • 20′ Gabriella Bourboulia

ARPNet and models of heterogenous response in treatment of depressive disorder

  • 15′ Chairs

Discussions & conclusions

KEYWORDS

bioinformatics   computational   biology   neural   engineering   neuroimaging   neuroinformatics
neurophysiology   genomics   proteomics