RICERCA ITALIANA     

MULTIMODAL INTEGRATION OF STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL IMAGING TECHNIQUES FOR THE STUDY OF CEREBRAL CONNECTIVITY

Università degli Studi "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara

Abstract

The research we propose in the present project is concerned with the methodologies for the study of cerebral connectivity with multimodal functional imaging. In particular we intend to study and apply methods of multimodal functional imaging and evaluate their impact in the study of cerebral connectivity. This topic is of great timeliness to the scientific community and represents an important vein of developement of the basic as well as cognitive neurosciences. Indeed the ever more widespread availability of noninvasive cerebral functional imaging instruments coincides with the emergence in the neurosciences of the concept of functional integration, i.e. the cooperation, in brain activity, of various functionally specialised brain areas. New methodologies have been recently developed for the study of functional as well as structural connectivity. However, unimodal, rather than multimodal data, are mostly used. We therefore propose the combination of functional and structural connectivity data on one hand, and the combination of functional hemodynamic-metabolic and electrophysiologic data on the other hand. This represents a natural elaboration on the existing techniques, and will allow a more accurate study of cerebral connectivity. The qualifying features of the present project are: the use of state-of-the-art neuroimaging technologies, the proposal of innovative methods for data analysis, and the application to a topic of relevant scientific interest. The capabiltiy of >>>

Principal Investigator

Gian Luca ROMANI Università degli Studi "G. d'Annunzio" CHIETI-PESCARA

Research Objectives

The aim of the present research project is the development of multimodal data analysis methods for functional neuroimaging and the application of these methods to brain connectivity studies. Thanks to recent advancements, the study of brain activity through neuroimaging techniques has considerably increased the knowledge of the scientific community. Multimodal integration, i.e. the combined or simultaneous use of imaging techniques that are complementary either in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, or in terms of type of information (structural, functional-metabolic, electrophysiological), combined with a method of data analysis that correctly exploits this complementarity, has already provided remarkable results concerning the individualization of activation networks during specific sensorimotor or cognitive tasks. It is therefore of particular interest to develop new and more refined techniques of multimodal integration, in order to define a method for the investigation of brain activity that gathers its different physiopathological aspects. In particular, the study of cerebral connectivity is of great importance.
The recent increase of interest expressed by the scientific community towards cerebral connectivity is related to the emergence of the concept of functional integration in cognitive neuroscience studies. Connectivity among specialized brain areas is the basis of the expression of activation networks in the cerebral activity and it can be assessed >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

In the study of information processing in the human brain, the concept of functional segregation, according to which different areas of the brain are specialized for different functions, is of fundamental importance. In the last thirty years different functional neuroimaging techniques have been purposely developed for the visualization of brain activity during its normal and pathological working. In the past decade, functional neuroimaging techniques have been protagonists of a remarkable development due to some important technical-scientific innovations that have determined their easiness of use and diffused availability. These methods rely on the measurement of the physiological activity related to the processing of sensory inputs or to movement execution.

Neuroimaging techniques can be divided into two principal categories: those based on the variations of the hemodynamic parameters in the brain (flow, volume, oxygen and glucose consumption) following neuronal activity and those based on the direct measurement of neuronal bioelectric activity.

Among the first ones we find PET (positron emission tomography) [1] and particularly fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) [2]. The last technique is the one that has mostly spread in research laboratories, due to its total non invasiveness, that also allows to conduct repeated studies on voluntary subjects, and to the large availability of medium performance scanners that are able to acquire >>>