Lecture
LCN2 seminar November 2025
- Linda Douw (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
- Date
- Friday 21 November 2025
- Time
- Address
- Gorlaeus
- Room
- BM. 2.26
77th LCN2 seminar
Speaker: Linda Douw (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Title: Multiscale network neuroscience in neurological disease
Abstract: Most brain diseases and disorders can be viewed as network problems: they involve disrupted interactions across levels of organization, from cellular assemblies to large-scale systems that support cognition and behavior. Rather than treating scales in isolation, network theory provides a unifying framework to study how local perturbations propagate, reorganize, and manifest as symptoms. In glioma, for instance, microscale changes such as excess excitatory neurotransmitter release reshape mesoscale circuit activity, producing hyperexcitability that extends beyond the tumor’s immediate borders. At the macroscale, patients frequently exhibit increased clustering and reduced integrative connectivity, a hallmark of impaired communication efficiency. These multilevel disruptions resonate in patients’ lived experience, manifesting as seizures, cognitive deficits, fatigue, or mood changesm which are symptoms that are themselves embedded in interdependent networks. Despite clear evidence that network disruptions span multiple organizational levels, most research still partitions them into separate domains. This leaves open a central conceptual challenge: how do we connect micro, meso, and macroscale networks into a coherent model of disease? Addressing this question requires integrating principles from multiscale network science, such as modularity, hierarchy, and cross-level coupling. In this talk, I will highlight recent multiscale network studies across glioma, multiple sclerosis, temporal lobe epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease. I will also discuss the conceptual and methodological issues that arise when linking network organization across levels, and how such approaches may ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of the multidimensional nature of brain disease.
Snacks and drinks will be available after the seminar at the Fusiebar.