MexNIRS2017: I Mexican Symposium on NearInfared Spectroscopy Neuroimaging (MexNIRS) Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE) Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, October 20-21, 2017 |
Conference website | http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~bio/NIRS2017/?n=Main.HomePage |
Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mexnirs2017 |
Abstract registration deadline | July 15, 2017 |
Submission deadline | July 15, 2017 |
Aim
This symposium will provide a unique forum for the Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (NIRS) community to review the current status of global NIRS research in global health projects and discuss the challenges that lie ahead in advancing the technique as a successful neuroimaging tool in resource poor settings.
Submission Guidelines
We invite abstracts for contributed presentations. Submission begins on March 20, 2017, with a final deadline of June 30, 2017 July 15, 2017 -extended-(midnight Pacific Standard Time; UTC -8). Submit your abstract here.
- The registration form will only ask for information about one author that will act as the corresponding author. All other authors information (names, surnames and affiliations) should be included in the abstract.
Abstracts must be no more than 500 words. Figures, tables and references are allowed. The entire submission—i.e., the main body of the text as well as any figures, tables and references—should fit on one page, using at least an 11-point font. Submissions must be be uploaded in PDF format.
Find the latest information about submission and templates on the event website: http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~bio/NIRS2017/?n=Main.HomePage
Please contact mexnirs@inaoep.mx with any questions about abstract submission.
List of Topics
With initiatives like the Human Brain Project (Human Brain Project 2016) and the BRAIN Initiative (National Institutes of Health 2016) well under way, the neurosciences are experiencing an unprecedented time of discovery. However, due in large part to the technological limitations of many of the neuroimaging modalities in use, monitoring of the brain has generally been confined to laboratory settings. This has limited the ecological validity of the technologies for functional studies and severely constrained their routine exploitation in clinical settings beyond highly specialized hospitals. While deployment of neuroimaging modalities to remote, underserved and rural settings would involve a number of challenges, its impact for clinical applications and global health—as well as for neuroscientific research—could be substantial. There is a clear unmet need for a neuroimaging tool that can provide objective measurements of cognitive function and that can be used in remote locations. Initiatives like Global fNIRS (globalfnirs.org) have shown that NIRS can fill this very important need. Pioneering research is under way in Gambia, Uganda, India, Guinea Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Bangladesh and Colombia, but even with these early encouraging efforts the ordinary use and availability of NIRS for global health applications is far from a reality. Among the challenges that remain to be overcome:
- Challenges related to measurements in low-resource settings: Functional NIRS and neurophysiology NIRS measurements in underdeveloped countries, in rural areas and in the field require special equipment, special training and local support. Applications in these settings range from functional cognitive studies to diagnostic and treatment outcome predictions.
- Mechanical and instrumental challenges: Instruments may require redesigns to meet the particular needs of field measurements. The optics and electronics need to work under challenging environmental conditions while the costs of the instrumentation and optical sensors need to be brought down.
- Socioeconomic and cultural challenges: Going global implies crossing administrative, cultural and ethnographic borders. As the socioeconomic status and habits of the population change so do their living standards. This has implications for the implementation of NIRS technology. More importantly, these socioeconomic differences could affect the human brain and may be quantifiable with NIRS measures.
- Neurophysiological challenges: More studies are needed to improve our understandings of the cerebral hemodynamic evoked responses: for instance, the relationship between hemoglobin changes and neuronal activity and the interference of systemic physiology. In addition, more studies are needed to demonstrate the clinical utility of hemodynamic biomarkers for diagnosis and for neuro-monitoring.
- Basic science challenges: Our ability to correctly interpret results can be limited by any or all of the following: extracerebral contamination, scattering and water concentration assumptions, geometrical approximations, assumptions about a constant flow-volume relationship. Modalities such as time-resolved NIRS or diffusion correlation spectroscopy remain underused.
- Data analysis challenges: Methods to assess signal quality and the robustness of the results, in real time and in the field, are often missing. Standardization of data analysis and probe geometry and the use of head atlases may help to facilitate global adoption of NIRS.
- Educational challenges: The democratization of NIRS neuroimaging requires the implementation of training programs for local health workers, as well as the effective communication of findings so that the benefits are known to the rural communities benefitting from Global NIRS.
We welcome comments about any of these challenges.
Committees
Chairs
- Prof. Maria Angela Franceschini (Harvard Medical School, USA)
- Dr. Felipe Orihuela-Espina (INAOE, Mexico)
Local chairs
- Dr. Carlos Treviño-Palacios (INAOE, Mexico)
- Mr. Javier Herrera-Vega (INAOE, Mexico)
Program committee
- Prof. Mamadou Diop (Western University, Canada)
- Prof. Theodore J. Huppert (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
- Dr. Sarah Lloyd-Fox (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)
- Prof. Banu Onaral (Drexel University, USA)
- Dr. Katherine Perdue (Boston Children's Hospital, USA)
- Prof. Martin Wolf (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Invited Speakers
Keynote speakers
- Prof. David Boas, Massachusetts General Hospital, United States (Closing keynote)
- fNIRS in 2023
- fNIRS in 2023
- Prof. Clare Elwell, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom (Opening keynote)
- The BRIGHT Project – Brain Imaging for Global Health
Invited Speakers
- Dr. Jafet Arrieta, Harvard Chan Shoool of Public Health, United States:
- Global health challenges in Mexico and Latin America: Opportunities for using innovative technologies to address global health issues
- Global health challenges in Mexico and Latin America: Opportunities for using innovative technologies to address global health issues
- Prof. Joseph P. Culver, Washington University in St. Louis, United States
- Title to be announced
- Title to be announced
- Prof. Turgut Durduran, The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), Spain
- Mext generation cerebral blood flow monitors based on laser speckles
- Mext generation cerebral blood flow monitors based on laser speckles
- Prof. Kaja Jasinska, University of Delaware, United States
- How the brain learns to read in an environment with a high-risk of illiteracy: Using portable fNIRS to study literacy in rural cocoa growing communities of Côte d'Ivoire
- How the brain learns to read in an environment with a high-risk of illiteracy: Using portable fNIRS to study literacy in rural cocoa growing communities of Côte d'Ivoire
- Prof. Nasser Kashou, Wright State University, United States
- The Potential of Global NIRS in Resource Limited Environments
- The Potential of Global NIRS in Resource Limited Environments
- Prof. Frédéric Lesage, Polytechnique Montreal, Canada
- Characterization of an integrated illumination-detection optode for simplified fNIRS
- Characterization of an integrated illumination-detection optode for simplified fNIRS
- Prof. Rickson Coelho Mesquita, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
- The brain as a complex system: unveiling spatial interactions with NIRS functional connectivity
- The brain as a complex system: unveiling spatial interactions with NIRS functional connectivity
- Prof. John P. Spencer, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
- Assessing infant brain health in India using image-based fNIRS
- Assessing infant brain health in India using image-based fNIRS
- Prof. Marija Strojnik, Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica (CIO), Mexico
- Portable device to assess the (neural) tissue damage with NIRS
- Portable device to assess the (neural) tissue damage with NIRS
- Dr. Ilias Tachtsidis, University College London, United Kingdom
- Optical Bedside Biomarkers of Brain Function in Birth Asphyxiated Infants.
- Optical Bedside Biomarkers of Brain Function in Birth Asphyxiated Infants.
- Prof. Arjun G. Yodh, University of Pennsylvania, United States
- Blood Flow, Oxygen and Oxygen Metabolism Biomarkers During Surgery and in the Neuro-ICU
Venue
The symposium will be held in Santa Maria Tonantzintla, San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, México, at the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica Óptica y Electrónica – INAOE (National Institute for Astrophysics Optics and Electronics). The INAOE campus is located at Calle Luis Enrique Erro 1. The talks will take place in the “Luis Enrique Erro” Information Center, about 30 meters from the campus’ main gates. The 340-seat auditorium is on the ground floor of the building, which is easy to identify. With its distinctive dome, it resembles an observatory.
The Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica Óptica y Electrónica – INAOE is part of a network of 27 highly specialized research centers overseen by the Mexican Research Council CONACYT. INAOE’s history dates back to 1942, when Luis Enrique Erro founded the Observatorio Astrofísico Nacional de Tonantzintla (National Astrophysics Observatory at Tonantzintla) on the outskirts of Puebla, in the very spot where the INAOE campus is found today. At the time, Tonantzintla, was an ideal choice for an observatory because of its clear night skies and its strategic geographic location. As Puebla grew, though, the lights from the city hampered observations at the old observatory. As a result, two other observatories have since been built. Both are now a part of INAOE but they are not located in campus. INAOE was formally founded in 1971 by a presidential decree incorporating the new departments of Optics and Electronics. A Computer Sciences department was added in 1998. Research has continued to diversify over the years, making INAOE one of the strongest research institutions in Mexico today. The CONACYT network of research centers is second only to the National Autonomous University of Mexico in terms of research productivity in Mexico. By itself, INAOE is often ranked among the top research institutions in the country. Currently, across the four departments, INAOE is home to 141 faculty researchers, about 350 PhD and MSc students (INAOE does not offer undergraduate programs), and more than 500 visiting students. Over 85 percent of the institute’s faculty have been distinguished by the National System of Researchers (Sistema Nacional de Investigadores – SNI), a program sponsored by the Mexican government that has become a de facto standard for quality of research.
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to mexnirs@inaoep.mx
Sponsors
The symposium is being funded by the Mexican Research Council (CONACYT) through grants F0003-2017-01-279515, CB-2014-01-237251 and CB-2011-169558 and further complemented by Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE) through internal funding.
Additional Sponsors
We are currently looking for additional sponsors. Please do contact Dr. Felipe Orihuela-Espina for further information.
Gold
- Dip. Fed. Ana Leticia Carrera Hernández
Silver
- Red de Física Médica de CONACYT (Medical Physics network from CONACYT)
- NIRx Medical Technologies, LLC
- ISS Inc.
- Gowerlabs