Category / Psychology

Interdisciplinary Computational and Clinical Approaches at the Edge of Brain Research

We cordially invite you to the 3rd Symposium of the BU Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research Centre on Wednesday, the 12th of June 2024, from 9:30-13:00 at the Inspire Lecture Theatre, Fusion Building (1st floor).

The symposium is entitled: “Interdisciplinary Computational and Clinical Approaches at the Edge of Brain Research”.

This third symposium revolves around contrasting computational and translational methodologies from a cross-disciplinary standpoint, leveraging synergies between BU and our collaborators in other universities and at the NHS. It is an opportunity for informal discussions on grant proposals and to explore shared interests with our external guests. The general schedule is as follows:

9:15. Welcome and coffee.

9:30. Keynote talk: Prof. Miguel Maravall, Sussex University.

10.20-10:40. Coffee and grants discussion.

10:40-11:40. Session I. Integrating Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience.

11.40 -12.00. Coffee and grants discussion.

12.00-13:00. Session II. Interdisciplinary Clinical Approaches & Concluding Remarks.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Ellen Seiss, eseiss@bournemouth.ac.uk or Emili Balaguer-Ballester, eb-ballester@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Thank you very much, and we are looking forward to seeing you there.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili, on behalf of all of us.

 

 

 

 

Editorial accepted by Frontiers in Public Health

As part of the special issue in Frontiers in Public Health on ‘Evidence-based approaches in Aging and Public Health’ the guest editors included 15 academic papers.  These 15 contributions to the Special Issue were introduced in placed in perspective in our editorial ‘Editorial: Evidence-based approaches in Aging and Public Health[1] which was accepted for publication two days ago.   The guest editors included two Visiting Faculty to FHSS: Prof. Padam Simkhada and Dr. Brijesh Sathian.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

Reference:

  1. Sathian, B., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Kabir, R., Al Hamad, H. (2024) Editorial: Evidence-based approaches in Aging and Public Health, Frontier in Public Health 12 2024 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1391432

“Seeking meaning in diagnosis”: Exhibition by BU MSc Student Sarah Clark

Explore the concept of diagnosis through the lens of BU MSc student, Sarah Clark, in her photo exhibition titled “Seeking Meaning in Diagnosis.”

The exhibition will be in the Atrium Gallery, Poole House, running throughout March.

Sarah, currently pursuing a Masters in Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology at BU, delves into the theme of understanding diagnosis, as well as a sub-theme of utilizing creativity and time in nature to enhance well-being.

Diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome in February 2020, a rare genetic connective tissue disorder, Sarah’s journey took an unexpected turn when she discovered her Autism spectrum condition diagnosis in May 2022 during autism lectures on the Neurodevelopmental Diversity Unit of her MSc course.

Sarah’s lived-experience qualitative MSc Research Project, supervised by Dr Emily Arden-Close, explored the daily experiences of individuals living with both autism and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and her dissertation is currently being written up for journal submission.

Acknowledging the transformative impact of formal diagnosis on her life, Sarah has embraced lifestyle changes and effective self-management strategies for her hEDS and various co-morbidities, including mast cell activation syndrome, autonomic dysfunction, and Median arcuate ligament syndrome alongside mental health challenges of Complex PTSD and OCD and managing the interactions with Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).

In constant pain with every inhaled breath hurting and studying for her Masters whilst being on a liquid-only diet due to MALS, Sarah is now on a year-long waiting list for MALS surgery. She hopes her exhibition and sharing her diagnostic journey will provide inspiration to show what can be achieved even with extreme barriers.

Sarah sits as a patient expert in the EDS International Consortium, Psychiatric and Psychological Aspects Working Group, and Sarah presented her BMJ paper, “Help me trust you after my misdiagnosis,” at The EDS Global Learning Conference in Dublin last August.

Alongside being a student here, Sarah also works at BU as a Student Ambassador, Digitial Marketing Ambassador and a member of BU PIER (as a member of the public).

Passionate about medical education and raising awareness of rare health conditions, Sarah regularly engages in public awareness, volunteering, and charity fundraising.

Sarah recently facilitated a workshop on EDS for BU PIER for second-year nursing students and gave part of a lived-experience lecture on EDS to some of the MSc Health Psychology students.

As well as being a patient expert, photographer and blogger Sarah is also a keen yogi and she was featured in Hotpod Yoga’s Move with Purpose Campaign, discussing her late-autism diagnosis.

Influenced by her own health journey and navigating the complexities of the healthcare system, coupled with Complex PTSD from childhood trauma, Sarah has developed a keen interest in various aspects of the diagnostic journey.

Her exhibition, “Seeking Meaning in Diagnosis,” coincides with the ten-year anniversary of her March 2014 exhibition “Almost Beautiful” at Harbour Lights Cinema, Southampton.

Sarah’s exhibition aims to be thought-provoking, shedding light on the challenges of being diagnosed with rare conditions, inspiring creativity, and encouraging a connection with nature.

Expressing immense gratitude to the BU Community for the support and encouragement Sarah’s received here at BU, has not only improved her health and well-being but has also led to various amazing opportunities.

To learn more about Sarah’s interest in “diagnosis” –  visit her website.

Health Promotion article is being read

Our article ‘Understanding health education, health promotion & public health’ [1] is getting read according to ResearchGate.  This conceptual/ theoretical paper was published open access in late 2021 in the Journal of Health Promotion and it reached 4,500 reads yesterday. Whilst the web side of the journal suggests today that the PDF of the paper has been downloaded 8,511 times.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

 

 

Reference:

  1. van Teijlingen, K. R., Devkota, B., Douglas, F., Simkhada, P.,  van Teijlingen, E. R. (2021). Understanding health education, health promotion and public health. Journal of Health Promotion, 9(1): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3126/jhp.v9i01.40957

Discovering Causal Relations and Equations from Data

Discovering equations, laws, or invariant principles underpins scientific and technical advancement. Robust model discovery has typically emerged from observing the world and, when possible, performing interventions to falsify models.

Recently, data-driven approaches like classic and deep machine learning are evolving traditional equation discovery methods. These new tools can provide unprecedented advances in computer science, neuroscience, physics, philosophy, and many applied areas.

We have just published a new study discussing concepts and methods on causal and equation discovery, outlining current challenges and promising future lines of research. The work also showcases comprehensive case studies in diverse scientific areas ranging from earth and environmental science to neuroscience.

Our tenet is that discovering fundamental laws and causal relations by observing natural phenomena is revolutionised with the coalescence of observational data and simulations, modern machine learning algorithms and domain knowledge. Exciting times are ahead with many challenges and opportunities to improve our understanding of complex systems.

This study is a collaborative work between eight universities in Europe and the United States (Valencia, Berlin, Tübingen, Jena, Stockholm, New York, and Bournemouth Universities).

Camps-Valls, G., Gerhardus, A., Ninad, U., Varando, G., Martius, G., Balaguer-Ballester, E., Vinuesa, R., Diaz, E., Zanna, L. and Runge, J., 2023. Discovering causal relations and equations from data. Physics Reports, 1044, 1-68 (Impact Factor=30).

 

The Success of CuttingGardens2023 Conference

Last week saw the great success of the CuttingGardens2023 conference (16-19 October 2023). This was a globally distributed and hybrid conference on cutting-edge EEG/MEG methods with 800+ attendees. The event was globally coordinated by the CuttingEEG Association, and locally hosted by 21 gardens in 15 countries across Europe, Asia, and North and South Americas. Bournemouth University hosted a local Bournemouth Garden as part of this global event. This was chaired by Dr Xun He (also a member of the global organising committee) and the Multimodal Immersive NEuro-sensing (MINE) Research Cluster.

The conference had a series of plenary (global) talks on topics of theoretical advances, real-time processing and classification, reproducible analyses, and deep neural networks. These plenary talks were globally broadcasted to all gardens. Our Bournemouth Garden hosted a plenary speaker (Hubert Banville from Meta) on deep neural networks in the afternoon of Thursday, 19 October. Our local discussion on the plenary talks was so lively and critical, that very often our questions were among the top-voted online. Our attendees also enjoyed a thought-provoking, interactive, and friendly local programme. Following BU’s research expertise, they got a chance to visit the MINE Research Cluster and the EEG-eye tracking co-registration labs, and greatly advanced their knowledge and skills in these research fields through talks and tutorials. Our sponsors, ANT Neuro UK (EEG equipment producer) and TG0 (tactile sensing devices producer), also showed great support and delivered excellent demonstrations showcasing the most recent technical advancement.

The full support from the Faculty of Science and Technology (represented by Prof Christos Gatzidis) was extraordinarily reassuring, without which the conference would not have taken place. FST’s Deputy Dean, Dr Carly Stewart, also delivered the welcome note for the conference.

Our great success could not have been possible without the very enthusiastic and dedicated work of the best team. They truly deserve a loud round of applause! They are:

Bournemouth Garden organising committee (over 15 months from July 2022 to October 2023): Xun He (Chair), Ellen Seiss, Andrew Hanson, Marina Kilintari, Ruijie Wang, Federica Degno, and Biao Zeng (University of South Wales, visiting fellow of BU)

Local speakers: Federica Degno, Andrew Hanson, Otto Loberg, Géza Gergely Ambrus, Xun He

MINE Research Cluster visit hosts: Fred Charles, Ellen Seiss, Andrew Hanson, Xun He

EEG-eye tracking co-registration lab visit hosts: Federica Degno, Otto Loberg

Broadcasting support: Elliott Roch

Assistants: Damla Kuleli, Toby Denholm-Smith

 

Some team members and speakers in the summer of 2023 (from left to right: Andrew Hanson, Ellen Seiss, Xun He, Federica Degno, Ruijie Wang, Marina Kilintari, Otto Loberg)

 

Registration desk (from left to right: Xun He, Andrew Hanson, Toby Denholm-Smith, Damla Kuleli)

 

Carly Stewart (FST’s Deputy Dean) delivering the welcome note

 

Poster session

 

Discussion after a plenary talk

 

Enjoying the conference dinner at a vegan restaurant

 

Ellen Seiss hosting the lab visit to MINE Cluster

 

Fred Charles hosting the lab visit to MINE Cluster

 

Géza Gergely Ambrus giving a workshop talk

 

Federica Degno giving a workshop talk

 

Xun He giving a workshop talk

 

Our locally hosted plenary speaker, Hubert Banville (from Meta AI), was giving a plenary talk

 

The cheerful and ambitious conference cohort