Andrea Biondi

Research Assistant, King’s College London

Andrea is a neuropsychologist with a strong interest for the psychophysiology, neuroscience, and psychopathology. He is a PhD student at King’s College London at the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, under the supervision of Prof. Mark Richardson and Prof. Deb Pal.

Andrea is now working on a project entitled EEG@HOME with the aim to develop a procedure that will allow patient with epilepsy to independently and safety collect daily at home EEG and continuously data from smartwatch and smartphone app. He will investigate the association between self-reported events (seizures, mood, stress, sleep, medication taking), sensor data (sleep, heart rate, steps), and simple conventional measures to more complex and novel biomarkers extracted from the EEG (power spectra, mean and variability of the degree distribution, clustering coefficient, brain network ictogenicity). Finally, the student aims to develop a model based on these data to identify periods of increased seizure risk.

Previous experience:

  • Sep 2017 – Sep 2019. Andrea worked as a research assistant on the RADAR epilepsy work package. This is one of eleven work packages in the Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse in Central Nervous System Disorders (RADAR-CNS) Project. Andrea closely supervise the collection of clinical information and data from wearable devices (ECG, GSR, EMG, ACC), clinical EEGs, questionnaires, and interviews with patient in the hospital EEG monitoring unit.
  • Feb 2017 – Jul 2017.  Andrea was a volunteer in Ancona (Italy) in one of the most valued Hospital for geriatric and neurological diseases (I.N.R.C.A.). He evaluated patients with different kind of dementia (Fronto-Temporal, Alzheimer or Dysexecutive) using standardize neuropsychological test.
  • Nov 2015 – Nov 2016.  During his one-year apprenticeship he worked for six months at the Besta Hospital in Milan during the while he improved his neuropsychological skills and six months at the King’s College of London using TMS and EEG to the recorder of TMS-evoked-potential and he learnt how to use Fieldtrip and others software for the analysis of TMS-EEG data.
  • Sept 2014 – Sep 2015. During the master’s degree he spent one year as a neuropsychologist trainee at the Lex-Mea Lab (Padua University) and in the Department of Neuroscience and Psychiatry on Padua Hospital for collecting behavioural and electrophysiological data using neuropsychological questionnaire and EEG.

Qualifications:

  • 20 Oct 2017 – Registered in the “Register of Italian Psychologists” after “State Examination”. N: 2820
  • 2013 – 2015 – Master Degree in Neuroscience and Neuropsychological Rehabilitation (Summa Cum Laude – Distinction)
  • 2010 – 2013 – Bachelor Degree in Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology

Core expertise:

  • EEG, EEG-TMS & EEG-fMRI data acquisition;
  • EEG data analysis (ERPs and time-frequency analysis);
  • ECG, EDA, EMG data analysis;
  • Neuropsychological/Psychological and Cognitive Assessment.

Speciality:

  • Neuroscience;
  • Clinical Neuropsychology;
  • Psychophysiology.

Publications and Posters:

  1. Biondi, A., Rocchi, L., Santoro, V., Rossini, P. G., Beatch, G. N., Richardson, M. P., & Premoli, I. (2022). Spontaneous and TMS-related EEG changes as new biomarkers to measure anti-epileptic drug effects. Scientific Reports12(1), 1-11.
  2. Di Hou, M., Santoro, V., Biondi, A., Shergill, S. S., & Premoli, I. (2021). A systematic review of TMS and neurophysiological biometrics in patients with schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience46(6), E675-E701.
  3. Biondi, A., Laiou, P., Bruno, E., Viana, P. F., Schreuder, M., Hart, W., … & Richardson, M. P. (2021). Remote and Long-Term Self-Monitoring of Electroencephalographic and Noninvasive Measurable Variables at Home in Patients With Epilepsy (EEG@HOME): Protocol for an Observational Study. JMIR Research Protocols10(3), e25309.
  4. Bruno, E., Biondi, A., Richardson, M. P., & Radar-Cns Consortium. (2021). Digital semiology and time-evolution pattern of bio-signals in focal onset motor seizures. Seizure87, 114-120.
  5. Bruno, E., Biondi, A., Böttcher, S., Lees, S., Schulze-Bonhage, A., Richardson, M. P., & RADAR-CNS Consortium. (2020). Day and night comfort and stability on the body of four wearable devices for seizure detection: A direct user-experience. Epilepsy & Behavior, 112, 107478.
  6. Bruno, E., Biondi, A., Böttcher, S., Vértes, G., Dobson, R., Folarin, A., … & Richardson, M. (2020). Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse in Epilepsy: Protocol for a Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study. JMIR research protocols9(12), e21840.
  7. Elisa Bruno, Sebastian Böttcher, Pedro F. Viana, Marta Amengual-Gual, Boney Joseph, Nino Epitashvili, Matthias Dümpelmann, Martin Glasstetter, Andrea Biondi, Kristof Van Laerhoven, Tobias Loddenkemper, Mark P. Richardson, Andreas Schulze-Bonhage, Benjamin H. Brinkmann (2021). Wearable devices for seizure detection: Practical experiences and recommendations from the Wearables for Epilepsy And Research (WEAR) International Study Group. Epilepsia, https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.17044.
  8. Nasseri M., Nurse E., Glasstetter M., Böttcher S., Gregg N.M., Nandakumar A.L., Joseph B., Attia T.P., Viana P.F., Bruno F., Biondi A., Cook M., Worrell G.A., Schulze‐Bonhage A., Dümpelmann M., Freestone D.R., Richardson M.P., Brinkmann B.H., (2020). Signal quality and patient experience with wearable devices for epilepsy management. Epilepsia.
  9. Bruno, E., Böttcher, S., Biondi, A., Epitashvili, N., Manyakov, N. V., Lees, S., … & RADAR-CNS Consortium. (2020). Post‐ictal accelerometer silence as a marker of post‐ictal immobility. Epilepsia.
  10. Shek, A. C., Biondi, A., Ballard, D., Wykes, T., & Simblett, S. K. (2019). Technology-based interventions for mental health support after stroke: A systematic review of their acceptability and feasibility. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 1-21.
  11. Simblett, S. K., Biondi, A., Bruno, E., Ballard, D., Stoneman, A., Lees, S., … & Wykes, T. (2020). Patients’ experience of wearing multimodal sensor devices intended to detect epileptic seizures: A qualitative analysis. Epilepsy & Behavior, 102, 106717.
  12. Simblett, S. K., Bruno, E., Siddi, S., Matcham, F., Giuliano, L., López, J. H., Biondi A., … & Zappia, M. (2019). Patient perspectives on the acceptability of mHealth technology for remote measurement and management of epilepsy: A qualitative analysis. Epilepsy & Behavior, 97, 123-129.
  13. Bruno, E., Maira, G., Biondi, A., Richardson, M. P., & RADAR-CNS Consortium. (2018). Ictal hypoxemia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Seizure, 63, 7-13.
  14. Bruno, E., Simblett, S., Lang, A., Biondi, A., Odoi, C., Schulze-Bonhage, A., … & RADAR-CNS Consortium. (2018). Wearable technology in epilepsy: The views of patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Epilepsy & Behavior, 85, 141-149.
  15. Bruno, E., Biondi, A., & Richardson, M. P. (2018). Pre-ictal heart rate changes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Seizure-European Journal of Epilepsy, 55, 48-56.
  16. Premoli, I., Bergmann, T. O., Fecchio, M., Rosanova, M., Biondi, A., Belardinelli, P., & Ziemann, U. (2017). The impact of GABAergic drugs on TMS-induced brain oscillations in human motor cortex. Neuroimage, 163, 1-12.
  17. Premoli, I., Biondi, A., Carlesso, S., Rivolta, D., & Richardson, M. P. (2017). Lamotrigine and levetiracetam exert a similar modulation of TMS‐evoked EEG potentials. Epilepsia, 58(1), 42-50.
  18. Premoli, I., Costantini, A., Rivolta, D., Biondi, A., & Richardson, M. P. (2017). The effect of lamotrigine and levetiracetam on TMS-evoked EEG responses depends on stimulation intensity. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 11, 585.