aims and objectives
OUR COMMITMENT COMES FROM A DREAM
Research and care the main objective:
The Neurone Onlus Foundation was established on April 27, 2006 at the behest of President Giulio Nicolò Meldolesi, psychiatrist, and of his wife Emanuela Costa, internist. The Chairman of the Scientific Committee is Jacopo Meldolesi, M.D., professor emeritus at the San Raffaele University of Milan. Its primary objective is to support the realization of medical-scientific and biotechnological research aimed at identifying the etiological mechanisms, the prevention and treatment of serious and invalid neurological and psychiatric diseases.
The Neurone Foundation manages the Hub Lab in Caserta, the first infrastructure in the South of Italy entirely dedicated to research on Neuro-cybernetics, i.e. the set of technologies that manage brain signals for the development of automatic machines and electronic instruments capable of simulating specific functions of the human being.
Since 2006, the Neurone Foundation has collaborated with the Center for Epilepsy Surgery of the Neuromed IRCCS Institute of Pozzilli (IS), with the National Center for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion (CNESPS), Mental Health Department, of the ‘Istituto Superiore di Sanità’, with the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, with the University of Essex, United Kingdom, with Albany Medical College, Albany, New York; and Wadsworth Center, New York State Health Department, USA. He financed the realization of several research projects, many of which published in specialized high impact journals (see below the publications co-promoted by the Neurone Foundation).
The Foundation possibly promotes directly or indirectly any cultural, promotional and educational initiative, including the training of medical and paramedical staff, aimed at arousing the attention and financial support of public and private institutions of any kind, towards the needs and the quality of life of those affected by neurological and psychiatric diseases.
Which research to support:
The research carried out by the Neurone Foundation places itself at the advanced borders of neuroscience. At this level, medicine meets engineering and neuroscience is combined with mechatronics. In general terms, the benefit that arises from these combinations is based on the possibility of connecting a computer or electronic device directly to the human brain. And this for two essential purposes:
a) for therapeutic purposes, alleviating or treating multiple nervous system disorders. These purposes are achieved through various interventions, for example by modulating neuro-pathophysiological functions, such as abnormal discharge in epilepsy; by stimulating deep brain function in patients with Parkinson’s disease; by reintegrating motor functions through brain-computer interfaces for people with severe paralysis; by returning sensory functions through cochlear or retinal implants; by using equipment for motor or cognitive neuro-rehabilitation, to be applied to patients suffering from cerebrovascular diseases such as ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke,
from the results of a trauma, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (SLA) or multiple sclerosis;
b) for operational purposes, through an evaluation and reinforcement of the spontaneous potential of the human brain.
The Foundation primarily supports interdisciplinary clinical research projects on the functioning of neural systems at various levels of investigation, from genetics to molecular biology, to electrophysiology, morphological and functional neuroradiology, which also include the study of personality, emotions, cognition and behavior.
The projects supported by the Foundation aim to perfect clinical intervention protocols that employ innovative methods and technologies.
a. Neuroscience and rehabilitation;
b. Brain-computer interfaces based on electroencephalographic and electrocorticographic control signals;
c. Development and validation of methods of analysis and processing of biosignals and / or brain images in immersive virtual reality environments with real-time feedback, in order to refine the modeling of neurophysiological and neurophysiopathological processes and to identify and develop new methods applicable in neurorehabilitation, including, but not limited to, quantitative personalization and monitoring of the effects and strategies of rehabilitation intervention, mainly of the motor system and attention and cognitive functions;
d. Development and validation of information technologies for the processing of physiological signals applicable in the context of augmentative and / or replacement interventions in the clinical conditions of motor or cognitive deficits, including, but not limited to, devices based on brain-computer interfaces;
e. Expansion of clinical, electrophysiological, neuroradiological and biotechnological research activities of high scientific level and high transferability.Internationally renowned specialists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, neuro-psychologists, neuro-radiologists, orthopedists, physiatrists, bioengineers, electronic engineers, geneticists, molecular biologists and pharmacologists participate in these projects.
