Technologic advances in functional neurosurgery for movement disorders: historic timeline, state-of-art, future developments
On June 10th, at 2.00 p.m., dr. Luigi Romito (IRCCS Carlo Besta Neurological Institute Foundation, Milan, Italy), presents the seminar "Technologic advances in functional neurosurgery for movement disorders: historic timeline, state-of-art, future developments". The seminar will take place in Aula 1 (Polo Sant'Anna Valdera). Click here to join via Webex meeting.
Abstract
In recent years, Functional Neurosurgery (FN) has gained a progressive importance among the advanced treatments for severe drug-resistant motor symptoms of several Movement Disorders, such as Parkinson disease, Dystonia, Tics or Tremor, but also for neuropsychiatric conditions such as Obsessive-compulsive disorders, Tourette syndrome or Behavioral disorders.
This seminary aims to provide elements for a comprehensive understanding of the key topics of this tumultuously developing neurotherapeutic sector, highlighting the crucial importance of an ever-more integrated multidisciplinary contribution from serendipity (from which all started!), basic and applied neurosciences, neural engineering, artificial intelligence (AI) and informatics.
Since the very beginnings of the Functional Neurosurgery, the researchers’ challenge focused on decoding motor signs and non-motor symptoms by exploring their pathophysiologic signatures at micro- and macro-level into the neural circuitry, mainly to individuate specific brain targets for a determined therapeutic goal. The actual neurosurgical techniques armamentarium, in particular, the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), the Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultra-Sound Surgery (MRgFUS), and the Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS), is apt to provide a patient-tailored therapy. This scope has been improved by the progressive integration of various intraoperative and post-operative functional exploration techniques, such as the microelectrode recording (MER), the Local Fields Potentials recording (LFP), the Functional Brain MRI (f-MRI), the lead/lesion localization softwares, the application of AI and Machine Learning.
However, issues arising from cybersecurity, adaptive-DBS, DBS tele-programming and self-programming safety and indications, are representing current and mostly future challenges for the FN.
Biography
Dr. Romito is an experienced neurologist and researcher at the Department of Movement Disorders Carlo Besta Neurological Institute Foundation, Milan, Italy. His main research interests are the neurophysiopathology of the motor system, the development and application of innovative technological therapies for movement disorders (functional neurosurgery, infusion therapies, molecular biology, kinematics and wearable technologies, applications of robotics and Artificial Intelligence to diagnosis and treatment of movement disorders).
He got a PhD in neuroscience from the department of Pharmacology of the Catholic University in Rome. From October 2007 to September 2008, he carried out the EFNS - European Federation of Neurological Societies Fellowship for the research on "Deep Brain Stimulation in Tourette's Syndrome" at the Department of Neuroscience (Prof. Pierre Pollak), Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble, France. He is author and co-author of more than 164 peer-reviewed publications on indexed international journals.