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Vasco Conceição has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences - Neurosciences (thesis title: 'The computational roles of dopamine and serotonin in Tourette syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder', concluded in January 2020 with the maximum classification), conceded by Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, and a MSc in Biomedical Engineering (thesis title: 'Study of habit learning impairments in Tourette syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder using reinforcement learning models', concluded in November of 2014 with an average classification during the 2nd cycle of 18.31), conceded by Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal. Before, he completed the 12th Grade in Science & Technology at Escola Secundária Dr. Ginestal Machado, Santarém, Portugal, with an average grade of 19.33, which led him to receive 'Prémio de Mérito', an award attributed by the Portuguese Ministry of Education ('Ministério da Educação') to the student with the highest average grade of each school by the end of the 12th Grade. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, an invited assistant professor at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa (part-time, 30%), and the treasurer and a member of the scientific council of the Portuguese Tourette syndrome association ('Associação Portuguesa de Síndrome de Tourette - APST'). Vasco's research is encompassed in the emerging field of 'Computational Psychiatry', in which he plays an important role, as evidenced by his first authorship of a chapter in the 'Computational Psychiatry: A Primer' book from The MIT Press. Currently, Vasco is in close proximity with several world-renowned experts in his field, which helps to explain his ongoing collaborations with: 1) the Emotion and Development Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH; Besthesda, USA), where he was in 2015 and 2018 and where he still is an external collaborator; 2) the Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU; ETH Zurich, Switzerland), where he had a 'Residence with place of work' agreement between 2016 and 2018 and where he was a visiting scientist between November and December of 2015; 3) the Department of Psychiatry of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL; Barcelona, Spain), where he had contracts of supply of services in the scope of projects led by Dr. Carles Soriano-Mas in 2019 and 2020; 4) the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of Columbia University (New York, USA); and 5) the Neuropsychophysiology Lab of Universidade do Minho, Portugal. Vasco has 9 articles in peer-reviewed journals [1 in press and all others published between 2017 and 2021, 3 of which as either the first author or the second of two authors, in the first deciles in Neurosciences, and with 30 or more citations (Google Scholar)]. Some of the keywords that best characterize Vasco's work are: biological psychiatry, computational psychiatry, dopamine, obsessive-compulsive disorder, reinforcement learning, serotonin, statistics, and Tourette syndrome. His Google Scholar profile may be found at https://scholar.google.pt/citations?user=ksr6yvcAAAAJ&hl.
Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Vasco Manuel Aranha da Conceição

Citation names

  • Vasco A. Conceição

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
8616-5268-7583
ORCID iD
0000-0003-2281-5748
Google Scholar ID
https://scholar.google.pt/citations?user=ksr6yvcAAAAJ&hl
Researcher Id
F-4325-2018
Scopus Author Id
57195033520

Email addresses

  • vasco.conceicao7@gmail.com (Professional)
  • vasco.conceicao@medicina.ulisboa.pt (Professional)

Websites

Knowledge fields

  • Engineering and Technology - Other Engineering and Technologies - Other Engineering and Technologies

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
English Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2)
Education
Degree Classification
2015/01 - 2020/01
Concluded
Lisbon Biomedical and Clinical Research (LisbonBioMed) International PhD Program (Doutoramento)
Major in Biomedical Sciences - Neurosciences
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
"The computational roles of dopamine and serotonin in Tourette syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
Approved with Distinction and Honors
2012/09 - 2014/11
Concluded
Integrated Master's Degree (MSc) in Biomedical Engineering - 2nd Cycle (Mestrado integrado)
Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
"Study of habit learning impairments in Tourette syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder using reinforcement learning models" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
18.31
2009/09 - 2012/06
Concluded
Integrated Master's Degree (MSc) in Biomedical Engineering - 1st Cycle (Mestrado integrado)
Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
16.86
2006/09 - 2009/07
Concluded
12th Grade in Science & Technology (Ensino secundário)
Escola Secundária Dr. Ginestal Machado, Portugal
19.33
Affiliation

Science

Category
Host institution
Employer
2020/01 - Current Postdoc (Research) Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
2019/01 - 2020/01 Researcher (Research) Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
2015/01 - 2018/12 Researcher (Research) Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
2015/11 - 2015/12 Visiting Researcher (Research) Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Switzerland
Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Switzerland

Teaching in Higher Education

Category
Host institution
Employer
2020/10 - Current Invited Assistant Professor (University Teacher) Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
2018/03 - 2020/10 Invited Assistant (University Teacher) Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Projects

Grant

Designation Funders
2020 - Current State learning in the orbitofrontal cortex: a combined neuroimaging and computational psychiatry study in obsessive-compulsive disorder
PI19/01171
Other
Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Spain
Instituto de Salud Carlos III
Ongoing
2019 - 2019 Epigenetic and environmental factors bracing cognitive impairment and late-onset depression in elderly and early stages of Alzheimer disease
PIE14/00034
Other
Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Spain
Instituto de Salud Carlos III
Concluded

Contract

Designation Funders
2019/11 - 2020/07 NIH - Reference 4464450 - Computational Psychiatry
HHSN271201700413P
Research Fellow
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
National Institutes of Health (NIH) - National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Concluded

Other

Designation Funders
2012/10 - 2013/12 Habit learning disturbances in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
NA (Not Applicable)
Other
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa
Concluded
Outputs

Publications

Book chapter
  1. Conceição, V.A.; Maia, T.V.. "Tourette Syndrome from a Computational Perspective". In Computational Psychiatry: A Primer, edited by Peggy Sèries, 205-246. Cambridge, United States: The MIT Press, 2020.
    Published
Journal article
  1. Carvalheiro, J.; Conceição, V.A.; Mesquita, A.. "Acute stress impairs reward learning in men". Brain and Cognition 147 (2021): 105657-105657. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105657.
    10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105657
  2. Morgadinho, J.; Pronto-Laborinho, A.C.; Conceição, V.A.; Gromicho, M.; Pinto, S.; Swash, M.; de Carvalho, M.. "Plasma creatinine level does not predict respiratory function in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis". Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases (2021):
    In press
  3. Vasco A. Conceição. "Can anti-dopamine D2 receptor autoantibodies explain fluctuations of tic severity?". Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (2020): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.14626.
    10.1111/dmcn.14626
  4. Miltenberger-Miltenyi, G.; Cruz-Machado, A.R.; Saville, J.; Conceição, V.A.; Calado, A.; Lopes, I.; Fuller, M.; Eurico Fonseca, J.. "Increased monohexosylceramide levels in the serum of established rheumatoid arthritis patients". Rheumatology (2019): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/kez545.
    10.1093/rheumatology/kez545
  5. Miltenberger-Miltenyi, G.; Conceição, V.A.; Gromicho, M.; Pronto-Laborinho, A.C.; Pinto, S.; De Carvalho, M.. "C9orf72 expansion is associated with accelerated decline of respiratory function and decreased survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 90 1 (2019): 118-120. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85049031008&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1136/jnnp-2018-318032
  6. Maia, T.V.; Conceição, V.A.. "Dopaminergic disturbances in Tourette syndrome: an integrative account". Biological Psychiatry 84 5 (2018): 332-344. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85045187809&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.02.1172
  7. Conceição, V.A.; Dias, Â.; Farinha, A.C.; Maia, T.V.. "Premonitory urges and tics in Tourette syndrome: computational mechanisms and neural correlates". Current Opinion in Neurobiology 46 (2017): 187-199. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85030678671&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/j.conb.2017.08.009
  8. Guedes, L.C.; Chan, R.B.; Gomes, M.A.; Conceição, V.A.; Machado, R.B.; Soares, T.; Xu, Y.; et al. "Serum lipid alterations in GBA-associated Parkinson's disease". Parkinsonism and Related Disorders 44 (2017): 58-65. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85028846284&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/j.parkreldis.2017.08.026
  9. Maia, T.V.; Conceição, V.A.. "The roles of phasic and tonic dopamine in tic learning and expression". Biological Psychiatry 82 6 (2017): 401-412. http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85024915785&partnerID=MN8TOARS.
    10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.05.025
Working paper
  1. Carvalheiro, J.; Conceição, V.A.; Mesquita, A.; Seara-Cardoso, A.. 2021. "Acute stress blunts prediction error signals in the dorsal striatum during reinforcement learning". https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.11.430640v1.
    10.1101/2021.02.11.430640
Activities

Oral presentation

Presentation title Event name
Host (Event location)
2018/11/09 Síndrome de Tourette: Uma abordagem de psiquiatria computacional (ENG: 'Tourette syndrome: A computational-psychiatry approach') Jornadas de Psiquiatria e Saúde Mental - Psiquiatria 2.0 Novas Tecnologias, Nova Psiquiatria?
Hospital Beatriz Ângelo; Hospital da Luz - Learning Health (Lisboa, Portugal)

Event organisation

Event name
Type of event (Role)
Institution / Organization
2019 - 2019 Encontro Anual da Associação Portuguesa de Síndrome de Tourette - APST (ENG: 'Annual Meeting of the Portuguese Tourette Syndrome Association - APST'). This meeting, organized by APST, involved clinicians, psychologists, researchers, and patients with Tourette syndrome, as well as their relatives and friends. In addition to playing a key role in the organization of the meeting, I was one of the main speakers. My talk lasted 1 hour and was entitled 'Síndrome de Tourette: desafios na investigação' (ENG: 'Tourette syndrome: research challenges'). (2019/12/28 - 2019/12/28)
Meeting (Member of the Organising Committee)
Associação Portuguesa de Síndrome de Tourette, Portugal
2017 - 2017 Organization of the 10th iMM/CAML PhD Retreat. This was a yearly retreat that was made available to all Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM) community and to all PhD students affiliated with Centro Académico de Medicina de Lisboa (CAML). (2017/10/12 - 2017/10/14)
Other (Member of the Organising Committee)
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
2016 - 2016 Organization of the 9th iMM/CAML PhD Retreat (2016/09/29 - 2016/10/01)
Other (Member of the Organising Committee)
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Portugal
2013 - 2013 Organization of the 'II Jornadas da Engenharia Biomédica – IST/FMUL'. This was the second edition of a meeting that was organized on a yearly basis by NEBM-IST. It consisted of a series of scientific talks and networking activities, and it was targeted at students from the MSc in Biomedical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico. The main goals of the meeting were to instruct students about 1) possible applications of biomedical engineering in industry and research and 2) different paths that they could explore to attain their professional goals. (2013/03/06 - 2013/03/07)
Meeting (Member of the Organising Committee)
Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal

Event participation

Activity description
Type of event
Event name
Institution / Organization
2019/06/12 - 2019/06/12 Participation in a mini-symposium on Tourette syndrome, organized by Associação Portuguesa de Síndrome de Tourette - APST. APST promotes several talks and meetings all over Portugal (mostly in schools). This event was one of the most relevant. It occurred in Peso da Régua (with strong support from the City Hall), and it involved ~100 participants. The full meeting lasted 2 to 3 hours. My talk, which lasted approximately 1 hour, was entitled 'Síndrome de Tourette: Testemunho de um Investigador' (ENG: 'Tourette syndrome: A researcher's perspective').
Symposium
Síndrome de Tourette: Ação de Informação (ENG: 'An informative session on Tourette syndrome')
Associação Portuguesa de Síndrome de Tourette, Portugal
2018/09/10 - 2018/09/14 Participation in the 4th Edition of the Computational Psychiatry Course. This is (one of) the best course(s) on computational psychiatry in the world. Computational psychiatry requires translational knowledge on a broad spectrum of fields, such as psychiatry, computational modeling, (functional) neuroimaging, and machine learning and statistics. All those fields are addressed in this course, which is organized on a yearly basis by the Translational Neuromodeling Unit, ETH Zurich and University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Other
Computational Psychiatry Course
Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Switzerland
2017/09/25 - 2017/09/29 Participation in SynaNet's Behavioural Models of Disease Summer School Seminar Programme & Becoming an Effective Researcher Career Development Workshop, at Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom. SynaNet (short for 'Neurologic and Psychiatric Disorders: from synapses to networks') was a consortium that encompassed Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa. It aimed at promoting collaborative research by enhancing, e.g., effective knowledge transfer.
Other
Behavioural Models of Disease Summer School Seminar Programme & Becoming an Effective Researcher Career Development Workshop
Lancaster University, United Kingdom
2017/06/07 - 2017/06/09 Participation in SynaNet workshop on Neuroimaging, at University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
Workshop
SynaNet workshop on Neuroimaging
University of Eastern Finland, Finland
2016/08/29 - 2016/09/02 Participation in the 2nd Edition of the Computational Psychiatry Course
Other
Computational Psychiatry Course
Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Switzerland
2015/12/12 - 2015/12/15 Participation in the 1st Edition of the Computational Psychiatry Course
Other
Computational Psychiatry Course
Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Switzerland
2012/11/26 - 2012/11/30 Participation in the Lisbon Reinforcement Learning and Neuroscience Course, at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisboa, Portugal, which was lectured by some of the top researchers in computational psychiatry in the world (e.g., Doctor Nathaniel Daw).
Other
Lisbon Reinforcement Learning and Neuroscience Course
Fundação Champalimaud, Portugal
2003/03/26 - 2003/03/26 Santarém district winner of Jogo do 24 (ENG: '24 Game'). 24 Game is a mental calculus game that was played by students from all over the country. I was selected in 2002 and 2003, together with some colleagues, to represent Escola Básica Mem Ramires, Santarém, Portugal, in the district finals, which enrolled students in the 5th or 6th grades from all over the Santarém district. In my second year (2003), I won the district final, and I was selected, together with the second placed student, to represent the Santarém district in the National final.
Other
Jogo do 24: Final Distrital (ENG: '24 Game: District Final')
Cheetos, Portugal

Jury of academic degree

Topic
Role
Candidate name (Type of degree)
Institution / Organization
2021/02/24 Episodic and Semantic memories in Cognitive Planning: Evidence from a two-stage decision task
(Thesis) Arguer
Inês Alexandra Ribeiro Lopes Alves (Master)
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Association member

Society Organization name Role
2019/04 - Current Associação Portuguesa de Síndrome de Tourette - APST Treasurer (and member of the scientific council)
2012 - 2013 Member of Núcleo de Engenharia Biomédica do Instituto Superior Técnico (NEBM-IST), an organization entirely composed of students undergoing the 1st or 2nd cycles of the MSc in Biomedical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico. NEBM-IST organizes several programming workshops (on Java, LaTeX, MATLAB, etc.), out-of-the box talks, and social activities, during the year. It also organizes a yearly meeting encompassing both scientific and non-scientific activities. In 2013, such meeting was designated 'II Jornadas Engenharia Biomédica - IST / FMUL'. Member of the 'Information Technology' department

Interview (newspaper / magazine)

Activity description Newspaper / Forum
2019/12 I was interviewed by Diana Rodrigues, from Record TV Europa, because of my participation in Associação Portuguesa de Síndrome de Tourette (APST), in which I am the treasurer and a member of the scientific council, and because of my work as a researcher. My interview was integrated with those from patients with Tourette syndrome and other APST members, yielding both 1) a small documentary on Tourette syndrome, which aired on the 'Fala Portugal' show on November of 2019 (as detailed elsewhere), and 2) the news article mentioned here (Share Magazine). Share Magazine
2019 I was interviewed by Ana Tulha, from Notícias Magazine, because of my participation in Associação Portuguesa de Síndrome de Tourette (APST) and my work as a researcher. My interview was integrated with those from patients with Tourette syndrome and other APST members, and the resulting text was published in July of 2019. Notícias Magazine

Interview (tv / radio show)

Program Topic
2019/11 - 2019/11 Fala Portugal (report: 'Tourette: Uma Vida de Tiques') Tourette syndrome

Journal scientific committee

Journal title (ISSN) Publisher
2020/09 - Current PLOS One (1932-6203) Public Library of Science
2019/11 - Current Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (1469-8749) Wiley
2019/07 - Current Cortex (0010-9452) Elsevier
2019/03 - Current Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging (0925-4927) Elsevier
2019/02 - Current Computational Psychiatry (2379-6227) MIT Press
2018/07 - Current PLoS Computational Biology (1553-7358) Public Library of Science
Distinctions

Award

2009 Prémio de Mérito (ENG: 'Merit Award')
Ministério da Educação, Portugal