Anna Szabo (UOxford): "Uncovering network hyperexcitability in Alzheimer’s disease – a translational perspective"

Monday 11 May 2026, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Brussels

B-30/0-000 - FLUOR (Big meeting room) (CRC)

Abstract: Over the past decades, network hyperexcitability - particularly sleep-related epileptiform activity (EA) - has emerged as a key but under-detected feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with growing evidence linking it to accelerated cognitive decline. However, its prevalence, mechanisms, and functional consequences remain poorly defined, largely due to the limited sensitivity of routine clinical diagnostics and the lack of standardized detection methods and validated translational markers. This talk presents a translational research program combining preclinical models and human multimodal data to better characterize EA, its determinants, and its impact on memory and disease progression.

The first part of the talk will discuss work in the Tg2576 mouse model, where we identified a marked sleep-stage dependence of EA and further showed that monoaminergic systems - particularly noradrenergic transmission - critically shape this phenotype. We also demonstrated in the same model that commonly prescribed medications can modulate network hyperexcitability. More precisely, chronic antidepressant treatment provides a controlled model of exacerbated EA, which we currently leverage to investigate how increased hyperexcitability disrupts sleep-dependent memory consolidation.

In the second part, the talk will highlight key results from a case-control study conducted at the University Hospital of Toulouse including AD patients and matched controls and relying on polysomnography, EEG, neuropsychological assessments and neuroimaging as main methods to investigate network hyperexcitability. This study helped us better understand whether various rodent findings are translatable to clinical settings, but is also used currently used in the development of multimodal, computation-driven approaches to improve EA detection in clinical settings, with potential implications for clinical care and disease progression.

 

BIO: Following initial training in psychology and human movement sciences, I completed a Master's degree in integrative neurosciences at the University of Paris-Saclay. I then pursued a PhD in the same field at the University of Toulouse, conducting translational research focusing on the impact of network hyperexcitability during sleep on Alzheimer's disease progression and memory consolidation processes. Since 2024, I have been a course tutor in sleep medicine at the University of Oxford, and since March 2026, I am also working as a part-time postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University (Genzel Lab).