University of Rochester Medical Center    Research Assistant Professor

时间： 　　2017年12月13日上午 10:30 – 12:00 

地点： 　　深圳大学西丽校区A2-504

主持人：   张治国 教授

报告内容简介： 

Identifying biological targets for early detection and prevention has become the focus of current Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. Cumulative neuroimaging studies have reported that a wide range of brain regions becomes dysfunctional in AD, such as the prefrontal cortex and temporal gyrus. However, it is still unclear how AD associated neurodegeneration disrupt the subcortical regions, especially the cortical-subcortical connections. Combining multi-modal approaches (e.g. fMRI, DTI, PET, tDCS and ECG), our research is mainly focusing on the alteration of cortical-subcortical interaction in normal aging and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an early stage of AD. We identified frontal-basal ganglia and amygdala-frontal networks to be sensitive markers in early stage of AD, which may be used as potential targets of intervention in cognitive decline. Meanwhile, computational modeling and machine learning are applied to explore the biological mechanism of neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD. Based on our findings, we are developing more efficient computerized cognitive training paradigm for AD prevention and therapy.

报告嘉宾简介：

Ping Ren did his undergraduate studies in Physics at the Nanjing University. He completed his PhD program in Kunming Institute of Zoology and Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He started his Postdoc research at the University of Rochester since 2012. In previous studies, he focused on neural mechanism of decision making and directional information processing in primate prefrontal cortex using neuron recording. Now he is studying aging and Alzheimer’s disease in human with multi-modal approaches (e.g. fMRI, DTI, ECG and tDCS). His research interests mainly include neural mechanism of aging and Alzheimer’s disease, biomarkers and intervention of cognitive decline.