From brain maps to brain twins

Viktor Jirsa delivering his lecture at PNC in Padova

How can we move from describing the brain to understanding – and eventually predicting – its individual dynamics?

Yesterday, at the Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC) Distinguished Lecture in Padua, Prof. Viktor Jirsa (Aix-Marseille Université), Chief Scientific Officer at EBRAINS, explored how virtual brain twins combine individual multimodal brain data with mechanistic brain modelling and computational simulation to address clinically relevant questions.

Key takeaways from the lecture:

• From brain mapping to modelling: instead of only observing empirical maps of brain structure, function and connectivity, researchers can use digital brain twins to simulate some of the processes behind brain activity.

• Towards personalised models: individual brain scans and a subject-specific connectome can be combined with computer models and simulations to better understand how that specific person’s brain works and how it might respond to different interventions.

• Exploring clinical applications: this approach is already being investigated in areas such as epilepsy and schizophrenia. The Virtual Epileptic Patient (VEP), for example, was evaluated in the EPINOV clinical study involving 356 people with drug-resistant epilepsy undergoing neurosurgery.a

• A framework with broader potential: the same approach could be extended to healthy ageing, neurodegeneration and other brain disorders.

These workflows are being deployed through the EBRAINS Research Infrastructure, helping researchers advance personalised brain research.

We thank Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), partner in the EBRAINS 2.0 project, for organising and hosting the Distinguished Lecture and for the engaging discussion on the future of digital brain twins.

🔗 More about the Virtual Brain Twin project:
https://www.virtualbraintwin.eu/news/list.html

🔗 Event information:
https://pnc.unipd.it/event/from-brain-maps-to-brain-twins/