Project:

Ageing cognition recovered by electrical stimulation with personalized "cross-frequency coupling"

Mentor (Advisor):

RNDr. Eugen Kvašňák, Ph.D.

Department:

Department of medical biophysics and informatics

Contact information:

eugen.kvasnak@lf3.cuni.cz, 26710 2304

Project Narrative: (max. 500 characters including spaces):

The functional architecture of cognition is profoundly rhythmic and serves as a conductor for the organization of large-scale task-relevant networks with phase resetting, cross-frequency coupling, entrainment, and recruitment of task-relevant regions into coherent functional networks. Cross-frequency coupling (CFC) is a mechanism for synchronization and interaction between local and global processes of neuronal populations. Cross-frequency coupling between theta phase (4–8 Hz) and gamma amplitude (30–80 Hz) is essential for working memory (WM) processes. It is called theta-gamma coupling (TGC). WM functioning is supported by local neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex and re-entrant circuits connecting the prefrontal cortex to the parietal cortex, leading to neuronal oscillations driven by the repetitive and synchronized firing of groups of neurons. TGC encodes the ordering of items of information during time intervals of WM, i.e. the manipulative component of WM. Gamma oscillations represent these individual items of information, while theta oscillations represent the time interval during which the items are held in memory. The aim of the project is to test the cognitive effectiveness of TGC with a personalized (subject-specific) theta frequency using behavioral WM tasks and EEG in healthy seniors 50+.

Requirements for student applicants:

Completed university education (Master) in general medicine, or, psychology or natural sciences or biological signal processing.