Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s are devastating conditions with poorly understood mechanisms and no known cure. Yet a striking feature of these conditions is the characteristic pattern of invasion throughout the brain, leading to well-codified disease stages visible to neuropathology and associated with various cognitive deficits and pathologies. How can we use mathematical modelling to gain insight into this process and, doing so, gain understanding about how the brain works? In this talk, I will show that by linking different theories and methods to recent progress in imaging, we can unravel some of the universal features associated with dementia and, more generally, brain functions.