Zahra Moussavi of University of Manitoba

Abstract

Memory and cognitive declines are associated with normal brain aging but are also precursors to dementia, in particular Alzheimer’s disease.  While currently there is no cure or "vaccine" against dementia, based on brain’s plasticity, there are hopes to delay the onset or to slow the progression of disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is multi-facet condition; thus, the key to its management is in multi-disciplinary approaches. The clinical treatment of Alzheimer’s is basically a family of cholinesterase inhibitors like Aricept that the majority have a very low response rate. In this talk, I will review and discuss engineering-driven solutions as non-pharmaceutical treatments such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial alternative current stimulation (tACS) with and without Cognitive Exercises. Some pilot results of our current clinical trials will be presented.

Biography:

Zahra Moussavi is a professor, a Canada Research Chair, and the founder and former director of Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program at University of Manitoba. Her current research focuses are on medical devices instrumentation and signal analysis for sleep apnea management and Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment using virtual reality, rTMS and EVestG technologies.  She is the recipient of several awards including the “2018 Technical Excellence Award,” Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba, Oct. 2018, “Canada’s Most Powerful Women (Top 100)”, “Manitoba Distinguished Women” in 2014 and IEEE EMBS Distinguished Lecturer, 2014 and 2019. She has published more than 310 peer-reviewed papers in journals and conferences, and has given >117 invited talks/seminars including 2 Tedx Talks and 9 keynote speaker seminars at national and international conferences. Aside from academic work, on her spare time, she writes science articles for public; also, has developed and offered memory fitness programs for aging population.