Nobel Laureate is special guest speaker at IBEC event

During the event entitled “From the Science of Memory to the Future of Neuroengineering”, held at Palau Macaya and supported by Obra Social “La Caixa”, Prof. Moser talked about his pioneering work into the basic neural computations that underlie cognition and behavior –

research that has completely overturned prior conventional thinking in the field. His findings have enormous implications in brain disorders, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, that affect episodic memory – one of the devastating threats to an ageing population.

The arrival of Prof. Verschure’s Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems (SPECS) group at IBEC aims to strengthen the institute’s neuroengineering research in the framework of its Bioengineering for Active Ageing programme, where advances in minimally invasive sensors, signal treatment, data analysis or robotics are helping develop technologies to cope with the challenges of an ageing population.

In addition to Prof. Moser’s talk, Prof. Verschure gave an overview of how his group fits into the research strategy of IBEC. Like IBEC, SPECS includes physicists, psychologists, biologists, engineers and computer scientists, and will contribute greatly to IBEC’s clinical translation efforts with its strong collaborations with hospitals on rehabilitation and recovery after stroke, epilepsy and other brain diseases.

The event was supported by EIT Health and the MINECO Network of Excellence “Spanish Health Knowledge and Innovation Community for healthy lifestyle and active aging”. It was part of a series of scientific events organized by the network devoted to stressing the importance of ageing as a societal challenge and to highlight different solutions that science and engineering can provide.