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© 2024 EPFL

Andreea-Maria Gui joins the Blanke Lab as PhD candidate

— Using fMRI data acquisition combined with VR techniques, Andreea will investigate the neural coupling between autobiographical episodic memory and self-consciousness.

Non-invasive brain stimulation at EPFL © 2024 EPFL/Jamani Caillet - CC-BY-SA 4.0

Neurotechnology boosts memory without surgery

— EPFL researchers have combined virtual reality, non-invasive brain stimulation and advanced brain imaging techniques to improve spatial navigation in healthy participants. The study is a first step in addressing dementia in an aging population without medication or surgery.

© 2024 EPFL

Functional connectivity fingerprints in Alzheimer's Disease

— Functional connectivity patterns in the brain uniquely identify individuals with Alzheimer's disease. fMRI data show that while brain fingerprints remain distinct, the topology of regions/cognitive functions that makes individuals unique changes with disease progression.

© 2024 EPFL

Franco Regli Award 2022/2023 to Fosco Bernasconi

— Fosco Bernasconi is the Franco Regli Prize's winner 2022/2023!

© 2024 EPFL

Hallucination brain networks can be self-regulated via neurofeedback

— Sensitivity to robotically-induced hallucinations can be modulated following self-regulation guided-training on brain network dynamics

© 2024 EPFL

Embodying our memories with hippocampal-premotor cortex coupling

— The sense of agency through bodily signals is important for the encoding and recollection of episodic memories, and premotor-hippocampal coupling is key in this process.

© 2024 EPFL

Qiaoyue Ren joins the Blanke Lab as postdoctoral researcher

— Qiaoyue will work on self-related components of episodic memory, studying the impact of agency and intentional bodily movements on encoding and retrieval of autobiographical memory.

© 2024 EPFL

Lada Kohoutova joins the Blanke Lab as postdoctoral researcher

— Lada Kohoutova will work on identifying neural alterations associated with cognitive decline and hallucinations in individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

© 2024 EPFL

Best Paper Award for Movement Disorders 2024 to Louis Philippe Albert

— Louis Philippe Albert received the Best Paper Award for Movement Disorders 2024 and presented his work at the 14th Movement Disorders Symposium in Lucerne, Switzerland, on August 30.

© 2024 EPFL

Patient information day on hallucinations & cognition in Parkinson's

— We are happy to announce that our first patient information day on Tuesday March 19, 2024 was a success. This particular event aimed at sharing our latest research findings with those patients who participated in our different studies on hallucinations and cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease.

© 2024 EPFL

Halima Rafi joined the Blanke Lab as postdoctoral researcher

— Halima joins the Lighthouse project on artificial intelligence-guided neuromodulation between EPFL’s Neuro X Institute and the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering.

© 2024 EPFL

Grid cell activity in entorhinal cortex reflects self-consciousness

— Grid cell-like activity in entorhinal cortex reflected self-consciousness as induced in the full-body illusion using virtual reality and motion tracking in the MRI scanner. This finding provides the first evidence that a key aspect of bodily self-consciousness (self-location) is associated with grid cells in human entorhinal cortex.

© iStock / PALMIHELP

Locating single neurons that monitor and regulate the heart and lungs

— EPFL neuroscientists have located single neurons in a deep structure of the brain that regulates the heart and the lungs, a first detection in humans. The results shed light on how the brain-body system self-regulates both vital bio-rhythms.

The technodelics platform. © 2024 EPFL / Alain Herzog

The surprising effect of presence hallucinations on social perception

— EPFL neuroscientists have devised a way to alter our social perception and monitor specific types of hallucinations, both in healthy individuals and patients with Parkinson’s disease. The test, which is also available online, provides the medical community with a tool to monitor hallucination susceptibility.

© 2024 EPFL

Leenards Prize for neurotech project in Dementia with Lewy Bodies

— We are happy to announce that the 2024 Leenaards Foundation Science Prize has been awarded to our project on the early diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies.

© 2024 EPFL

Out-of-body illusion induced by visual-vestibular stimulation

— In this work, published in iScience, HsinPing Wu presents a unique approach combining immersive virtual reality and vestibular stimulation to induce out-of-body-like experiences.

© 2024 EPFL

Juan Carlos Farah joined the Blanke Lab as postdoctoral researcher

— Juan Carlos will work on new methods using AI and large language models for cognitive neuroscience research 

© 2024 EPFL

Courtney Applewhite joins the Blanke Lab as postdoctoral researcher

— Courtney will work on the cognitive science of hallucinations linked to bereavement

© 2023 EPFL

Robots make people hear voices

— Researchers from LNCO developed a robotic procedure able to make healthy participants hear voices when they were in fact hearing only noise. Their work garnered worldwide attention, including a notable feature in The New York Times and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

© 2023 EPFL

Sara Stampacchia was selected as Neuro-X Postdoctoral Fellow!

— Congratulations to Sara Stampacchia, who was selected as this year’s Neuro X Postdoctoral Fellow! This new program at Neuro-X will allow Sara Stampacchia to work on a new exciting project entitled “Technology-based antipsychotic therapy in Parkinson’s disease” aiming to reduce the occurrence of hallucinations in Parkinson’s Disease patients, thanks to an innovative approach combining robotics and real-time fMRI neurofeedback. Candidates were selected on the basis of their CV and quality of their proposal.

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