Keynote Prof. Dr. Madalena Costa

Abstract

This talk will address methods of extracting dynamical information of basic and translational value from physiologic signals under the control of both the voluntary and involuntary nervous systems. The unifying theme is the loss of complexity with biologic aging and disease. I will discuss multiscale time series methods such as generalized multiscale entropy and newer methods to quantify coupling between signals based on symbolic dynamical analysis. These techniques will be applied to studies of center of pressure (balance) regulation, visuomotor control and cardiovascular dynamics.

Bio 

Madalena Damásio da Costa, PhD, is a statistical physicist concentrating in physiologic signal analysis. She did her undergraduate and graduate training at the Faculty of Sciences in Lisbon, Portugal. She is currently Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Division of Interdisciplinary Medicine and Biotechnology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She is also Co-director of the Margret and H.A. Rey Institute for Complex Physiologic Signals in Physiology and Medicine. She and her colleagues have introduced widely-used methods of physiologic time series analysis. These methods have been shown to be useful for studying a broad range of problems in physiologic and biomedicine. Her work is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.