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Феурра Маттео

Институт когнитивных нейронаук

Профиль на hse.ru ↗ тел.: +7 (495) 772-9590 | 15366
Публикаций
69
Языков
2
Наград
0
Конференций
5
Профиль Публикации (69) Курсы (3)

Профессиональные интересы

нейробиологические механизмы памятиконсолидация памятисенсомоторная кораТМСЭЭГtDCStACS

Должности

  • Доцент — Институт когнитивных нейронаук

Био

  • · Начал работать в НИУ ВШЭ в 2014 году.
  • · Научно-педагогический стаж: 11 лет.

Образование

  • 2009 · PhD: Флорентийский университет, специальность 19.00.02 «Психофизиология», 19.00.00 «Психологические науки», 03.03.06 «Нейробиология»
  • 2004 · Специалитет: Университет Флоренции, специальность «Психология», квалификация «Специалист»
  • — · 2004 Laurea in Psicologia Sperimentale (пятигодичная комбинированная программа бакалавриат-магистратура по специальности Экспериментальная Психология), Флорентийский университет. 2009 PhD в Экспериментальной Психологии, Факультет Психологии, Флорентийский университет. Научные руководители: Prof. Nicoletta Berardi and Maria Pia Viggiano.

Опыт работы

  • · 2014: с года НИУ ВШЭ

Гранты и проекты

  • — · на соискание учёной степени кандидата наук

Конференции (5)

Показать все
  • · 2016: Third annual conference Communication, Computation, and Cognitive Processes (СССР3) (Moscow). Доклад: The BDNF val66met polymorphism affects the level of processing effect of memory: A deep and shallow rTMS study
  • · 2016: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEMORY (ICOM6) (Budapest). Доклад: Frequency-specific insight into short-term memory capacity
  • · 2016: SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE (Chicago). Доклад: State-dependent impact of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation of the motor mirror system
  • · 2015: 1st Moscow Conference with International Participation “TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION: FROM CURRENT STATE-OF-ART TO FUTURE HORIZONS” (Moscow). Доклад: STATE-DEPENDENT EFFECTS OF TRANSCRANIAL ALTERNATING CURRENT STIMULATION OF THE MOTOR SYSTEM
  • · 2015: Summer Neurolinguistic School "Language and Brain Pathology". Доклад: Neuromodulation Treatment in Aphasia

Идентификаторы исследователя

Публикации (69)

Jitter of corticospinal neurons during repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Method and possible clinical implications.

2014 · ARTICLE · en

BACKGROUND: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the motor cortex activates corticospinal neurons mainly through the depolarization of cortico-cortical axons belonging to interneurons of superficial layers. OBJECTIVE: We used single-fiber electromyography (SFEMG) to estimate the "central jitter" of activation latency of interneural pools from one pulse of TMS to another. METHODS: We evaluated 10 healthy subjects and one patient with multiple sclerosis. By recording SFEMG evoked activity from the left first dorsal interosseous (FDI), we first used a standard repetitive electrical 3 Hz stimulation of the ulnar nerve at the wrist to calculate the mean consecutive difference from at least 10 different potentials. The same procedure was applied during 3 Hz repetitive TMS of the contralateral motor cortex. The corticospinal monosynaptic connection of the FDI and the selectivity of SFEMG recording physiologically justified the subtraction of the "peripheral jitter" from the whole cortico-muscular jitter, obtaining an estimation of the actual "central jitter." RESULTS: All subjects completed the study. The peripheral jitter was 28 mus +/- 6 and the cortico-muscular jitter was 344 mus +/- 97. The estimated central jitter was 343 +/- 97 mus. In the patient the central jitter was 846 mus, a value more than twice the central jitter in healthy subjects. CONCLUSION: Current results demonstrate that the evaluation of the central component of the cumulative cortico-muscular latency variability in healthy subjects is feasible with a minimally invasive approach. We present and discuss this methodology and provide a "proof of concept" of its potential clinical applicability in a patient with multiple sclerosis.

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Time Course of Corticospinal Excitability and Autonomic Function Interplay during and Following Monopolar tDCS

2014 · ARTICLE · en

While polarity-specific after-effects of monopolar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on corticospinal excitability are well-documented, modulation of vital parameters due to current spread through the brainstem is still a matter of debate, raising potential concerns about its use through the general public, as well as for neurorehabilitation purposes. We monitored online and after-effects of monopolar tDCS (primary motor cortex) in 10 healthy subjects by adopting a neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)/tDCS combined protocol. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) together with vital parameters [e.g., blood pressure, heart-rate variability (HRV), and sympathovagal balance] were recorded and monitored before, during, and after anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS. Ten MEPs, every 2.5-min time windows, were recorded from the right first dorsal interosseous (FDI), while 5-min epochs were used to record vital parameters. The protocol included 15 min of pre-tDCS and of online tDCS (anodal, cathodal, or sham). After-effects were recorded for 30 min. We showed a polarity-independent stabilization of cortical excitability level, a polarity-specific after-effect for cathodal and anodal stimulation, and an absence of persistent excitability changes during online stimulation. No significant effects on vital parameters emerged both during and after tDCS, while a linear increase in systolic/diastolic blood pressure and HRV was observed during each tDCS condition, as a possible unspecific response to experimental demands. Taken together, current findings provide new insights on the safety of monopolar tDCS, promoting its application both in research and clinical settings.

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Vegetative versus minimally conscious states: a study using TMS-EEG, sensory and event-related potentials.

2013 · ARTICLE · en

Differential diagnoses between vegetative and minimally conscious states (VS and MCS, respectively) are frequently incorrect. Hence, further research is necessary to improve the diagnostic accuracy at the bedside. The main neuropathological feature of VS is the diffuse damage of cortical and subcortical connections. Starting with this premise, we used electroencephalography (EEG) recordings to evaluate the cortical reactivity and effective connectivity during transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in chronic VS or MCS patients. Moreover, the TMS-EEG data were compared with the results from standard somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) and event-related potentials (ERPs). Thirteen patients with chronic consciousness disorders were examined at their bedsides. A group of healthy volunteers served as the control group. The amplitudes (reactivity) and scalp distributions (connectivity) of the cortical potentials evoked by TMS (TEPs) of the primary motor cortex were measured. Short-latency median nerve SEPs and auditory ERPs were also recorded. Reproducible TEPs were present in all control subjects in both the ipsilateral and the contralateral hemispheres relative to the site of the TMS. The amplitudes of the ipsilateral and contralateral TEPs were reduced in four of the five MCS patients, and the TEPs were bilaterally absent in one MCS patient. Among the VS patients, five did not manifest ipsilateral or contralateral TEPs, and three of the patients exhibited only ipsilateral TEPs with reduced amplitudes. The SEPs were altered in five VS and two MCS patients but did not correlate with the clinical diagnosis. The ERPs were impaired in all patients and did not correlate with the clinical diagnosis. These TEP results suggest that cortical reactivity and connectivity are severely impaired in all VS patients, whereas in most MCS patients, the TEPs are preserved but with abnormal features. Therefore, TEPs may add valuable information to the current clinical and neurophysiological assessment of chronic consciousness disorders.

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Overclock your brain for gaming? Ethical, social and health care risks

2013 · ARTICLE · en

tDCS is a non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) neuromodulatory technique used in brain research, whose potential clinical applications to treat pathological neuropsychiatric conditions are rapidly growing. The rationale to use tDCS as a neuromodulatory treatment is that it modifies cortical excitability in a polarityspecific manner, with effects lasting even after the stimulation has ceased. tDCS applied over the prefrontal cortex can induce long-lasting improvements in cognitive abilities, as accelerating learning times to identify concealed objects in naturalistic environments, with a doseeresponse effect of applied current strength. Evidence-based clinical efficacy in large clinical trials on the use of prefrontal tDCS for treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders is still weak, but randomized, controlled multicentric trials are currently ongoing worldwide (see http://clinicaltrials. gov). These studies will provide an answer about the real efficacy on clinical grounds.

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State-dependent effects of transcranial oscillatory currents on the motor system: what you think matters.

2013 · ARTICLE · en

Imperceptible transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) changes the endogenous cortical oscillatory activity in a frequency-specific manner. In the human motor system, tACS coincident with the idling beta rhythm of the quiescent motor cortex increased the corticospinal output. We reasoned that changing the initial state of the brain (i.e., from quiescence to a motor imagery task that desynchronizes the local beta rhythm) might also change the susceptibility of the corticospinal system to resonance effects induced by beta-tACS. We tested this hypothesis by delivering tACS at different frequencies (theta, alpha, beta, and gamma) on the primary motor cortex at rest and during motor imagery. Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were obtained by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on the primary motor cortex with an online-navigated TMS-tACS setting. During motor imagery, the increase of corticospinal excitability was maximal with theta-tACS, likely reflecting a reinforcement of working memory processes required to mentally process and "execute" the cognitive task. As expected, the maximal MEPs increase with subjects at rest was instead obtained with beta-tACS, substantiating previous evidence. This dissociation provides new evidence of state and frequency dependency of tACS effects on the motor system and helps discern the functional role of different oscillatory frequencies of this brain region. These findings may be relevant for rehabilitative neuromodulatory interventions

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Frequency-dependent enhancement of fluid intelligence induced by transcranial oscillatory potentials.

2013 · ARTICLE · en

Everyday problem solving requires the ability to go beyond experience by efficiently encoding and manipulating new information, i.e., fluid intelligence (Gf) [1]. Performance in tasks involving Gf, such as logical and abstract reasoning, has been shown to rely on distributed neural networks, with a crucial role played by prefrontal regions [2]. Synchronization of neuronal activity in the gamma band is a ubiquitous phenomenon within the brain; however, no evidence of its causal involvement in cognition exists to date [3]. Here, we show an enhancement of Gf ability in a cognitive task induced by exogenous rhythmic stimulation within the gamma band. Imperceptible alternating current [4] delivered through the scalp over the left middle frontal gyrus resulted in a frequency-specific shortening of the time required to find the correct solution in a visuospatial abstract reasoning task classically employed to measure Gf abilities (i.e., Raven's matrices) [5]. Crucially, gamma-band stimulation (gamma-tACS) selectively enhanced performance only on more complex trials involving conditional/logical reasoning. The present finding supports a direct involvement of gamma oscillatory activity in the mechanisms underlying higher-order human cognition.

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TMS interference with primacy and recency mechanisms reveals bimodal episodic encoding in the human brain

2013 · ARTICLE · en

A classic finding of the psychology of memory is the "serial position effect." Immediate free recall of a word list is more efficient for items presented early (primacy effect) or late (recency effect), with respect to those in the middle. In an event-related, randomized block design, we interfered with the encoding of unrelated words lists with brief trains of repetitive TMS (rTMS), applied coincidently with the acoustic presentation of each word to the left dorsolateral pFC, the left intraparietal lobe, and a control site (vertex). Interference of rTMS with encoding produced a clear-cut double dissociation on accuracy during immediate free recall. The primacy effect was selectively worsened by rTMS of the dorsolateral pFC, whereas recency was selectively worsened by rTMS of the intraparietal lobe. These results are in agreement with the double dissociation between short-term and long-term memory observed in neuropsychological patients and provide direct evidence of distinct cortical mechanisms of encoding in the human brain

Transcranial alternating current stimulation affects decision making

2012 · ARTICLE · en

Here, we aim to discuss an emerging neuromodulatory approach, transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS). tACS shares the same settings of tDCS in terms of device and montage, but differs in terms of current flow wave-form delivered trough the scalp. Unlike tDCS, tACS delivers electrical oscillatory currents at different frequency ranges according to the operator’s demands. Recent studies have shown that tACS may boost brain activity related to different functions (Marshall et al., 2006; Feurra et al., 2011a,b), presumably by entraining the ongoing oscillatory activity in a frequency-dependent manner (Thut and Miniussi, 2009). Oscillatory activity of cortical areas engaged in specific cognitive processes synchronizes at distinct frequencies during task performance, ranging from theta to the gamma band (Varela et al., 2001). This resonance-like interplay between externally applied and internally generated regional oscillatory activity may prove a powerful approach to manipulate brain activity.

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Bi-hemispheric effects on corticospinal excitability induced by repeated sessions of imagery versus observation of actions.

2012 · ARTICLE · en

PURPOSE: To investigate whether repeated sessions of motor imagery and action observation modulate corticospinal excitability (CE) over time, whether these processes are susceptible of any training effect and if such effect might be different for the dominant and non dominant hemisphere. METHODS: 11 subjects underwent three sessions, spaced 5-7 days, of single-pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) of right and left primary motor cortex. Subjects were asked to imagine or observe pinch-grip actions with either hand. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded bilaterally from the First Dorsal Interosseus muscle (FDI), acting as main agonist during precision grip. RESULTS: Motor imagery consistently enhanced CE with respect to action observation, regardless of hemispheric lateralization and of separate testing sessions. However, motor imagery increased CE only when measured over the non-dominant hemisphere, during the third session with respect to the first one. The increase of CE induced by action observation in the first session was not further modified throughout the remaining two sessions, in either hemisphere. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that motor imagery is sustained by a cortical network susceptible to training effects only for the non-dominant hemisphere. Such an effect was lacking for action observation, likely because of the innateness of these mechanisms. Results might have implications for rehabilitative purposes.

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Temporal dynamics of memory trace formation in the human prefrontal cortex.

2011 · ARTICLE · en

Event-related repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can dynamically interfere with the memory encoding of complex visual scenes. Here, we investigated the critical time elapsing from stimulus presentation to the formation of an effective memory trace by delivering rTMS (900 ms at 20 Hz) during the encoding of visual scenes at different poststimulus delays (from 100 to 500 ms) in 28 healthy volunteers. The stimulation delay showed a robust inverse correlation with the correct retrieval of encoded images. In particular, rTMS stimulation delivered with a delay of 500 ms and lasting for 400 ms after stimulus offset resulted in a huge drop in retrieval accuracy. Such a timing suggests that rTMS affects the formation of long-term memory through interference with postperceptual executive processes, rather than with perceptual analysis of the stimuli. The effect was specific for stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), whereas rTMS applied to the right DLPFC, vertex (active control site), as well as sham stimulation (placebo) did not affect accuracy. These results confirm the crucial role of the left DLPFC in encoding and provide novel information about the critical timing of its engagement in the formation, consolidation, and maintenance of the memory trace.

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Курсы (3)