Name: Zsigmond Tamás Kincses
Affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Szeged
Primary research interest: Neuroimaging
Title of the lecture: Functional and structural imaging of the brain, brief review of the data acquisition and analysis techniques
Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging, connectivity
Summary: Since the original experiment of Paul Lauterbur in 1971, in which he applied magnetic gradients in three dimension and backprojection technique to image two tubes, magnetic resonance imaging became one of the most important medical investigation approach. Among the standard clinical sequences depicting the entire body, there are several innovative approaches to study brain structure and function in health as well as in various neurological and psychiatric disorders. In this lecture we will briefly review the concept of magnetic resonance, relaxation and image formation. We will discuss the data analysis approaches to segment various structures in the brain and measures to assess the size/volume of those structures. We will introduce diffusion tensor imaging to investigate the structural connectivity of the brain and the approaches to investigate microstructural integration of the white matter in health and disease. And finally we will look into how to measure brain function (BOLD fMRI). Next to the investigation of brain activations in certain tasks we will introduce the concept of functional and effective connectivity and networks. We will show why understanding of network temporal and spatial dynamics can be feasible signature of brain function. The above mentioned topics will be discussed from physiological point of view, but the data analysis approaches will be emphasised too.