My name is Guillermo de Arcas
I’m Professor of acoustics and instrumentation in UPM
and I am the scientific coordinator of a research program,
which is called the Nero Acoustics Lab.
The goal of this research program is to study the use of acoustic
technologies in the field of neuroscience, and in particular to develop
technological solutions that might contribute to alleviate or
to improve, the life of those affected by these type of diseases.
We’re working in two main areas.
One is auditory stimulation and the other one
is the monitoring of motor symptoms in neurodegenerative diseases.
Although we have been mainly working in Parkinson's disease,
well our hypothesis is that auditory
stimulation might induce some changes in our brain activity.
So our prophecy is, is that if we study
those simulations at a more basic level, at the level of sound,
we might be
able to design some sonic stimulus
that can induce certain changes and due to the interconnection
about different brain regions and functionalities,
these might contribute to improve some of those symptoms.
We have just finished a couple of studies,
one where we have been analyzing
the EEG activity in the long term
auditory stimulation in a group of 14 patients
and the other one where we were analyzing if those changes
produce some changes in the motor
symptoms of those patients.
Now we have started
a new collaboration in in the lab
to try to develop a preclinical line of the study
that would complement our clinical studies
and would help us to improve our knowledge and our understanding
of the interconnections, or the changes
that these auditory stimulus might be presenting,
because in some patients we are seeing a kind of response.
and in others we have seen a different kind of response
regarding the monitoring of motor symptoms.
We are trying to move from a supervised scenario
to a free living scenario.
In the supervisor scenario, we are proposing the patient
to do some specific tests.
These tests are the ones that the neurology
usually present, like, for example, extending your arms to measure tremor
or moving your arms backward and forward.
This is where we have been working and we have developed some algorithms
using AI.
Now we trying to move to a free-living scenario.
In that scenario, the patient would perform
their daily activities without thinking about doing the specific tests,
But we should be able to locate and gather
that data that we need to assess the specific indicator.
For example, when the patient is resting, we can try to measure
the amount of resting tremor
or when the patient is eating or maybe brushing their teeth.
We might be able to measure the bradykinesia
the slowing of the movement using that signals
In both cases, we work with hospitals.
In particular, we work a lot with Ramón y Cajal hospital in Madrid
and with other research institutions.
We have a strong collaboration with Complutense University
of Madrid, with
Dr. Fernando Maestú and other researchers from UPM and also from Portugal
Many times it is
not so easy to reach the patients in the hospital
because they only will go once every few months, but they go every day
to their Parkinson's, or every week, to the Parkinson's Disease Association,
where they have complementary therapies, etc..
And that's an environment where it's
much easier to develop these kind of studies.
So we've been collaborating with them very, very strongly since the beginning,
and they played a key role in our studies.
Well, I think neuroscience
and neuro technologies are a booming field.
We've seen at international level both private
and public initiatives trying to boost the development of these fields,
both in the U.S., in Europe and at any country.
We seen a lot of companies creating new companies trying to develop these
technologies, a lot of initiatives, trying to foster the research in this area.
Unfortunately, acoustics is an unknown field
for many of our students because it has disappeared from the degrees
of many of the engineering degrees.
But acoustic technologies are around us and they're contributing
to solve some of the challenges in our society.
I personally think that acoustic technologies have have
the potential to have a great impact in neuroscience.
Actually, there are some applications that have been developed
like high frequency ultrasound, like low frequency ultrasound, etc.
that are changing
the clinical management of some of these diseases.
So I think it's a great opportunity because there's not so many people
trained to work in acoustics and neuroscience.
So I would encourage anyone and it's also a very rewarding experience.