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Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre

Department of Clinical Neurosciences
 

Cambridge Brain MRI meeting schedule

Aims

The Cambridge Brain MRI meetings are intended to provide a forum for discussion and to facilitate new collaborations for anyone interested in magnetic resonance imaging or magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the brain. The meetings run from 3-5pm four times per year. Topics discussed include work on human brain imaging, animal imaging, and ex vivo or phantom imaging. We normally have one external invited speaker per session, followed by a series of presentations from researchers at Cambridge, particularly with a focus on those working at the postdoctoral / young principal investigator level. We often also have a "Data Blitz" which is an opportunity for anyone who wishes to present for 1 minute (exactly!!) with one slide. This is a great opportunity to advertise the availability of a new method, or to seek collaborators for a new project, or to showcase a piece of recently completed work.

 

Organisers

The Cambridge Brain MRI meetings are organised as a service to the Cambridge MRI/MRS community by Hugh Markus (on sabbatical), Chris Rodgers, Zoe Kourtzi (on sabbatical), Rik Henson and Tom Cope. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to speak, have suggestions for future meetings, or other feedback on things you like or constructive comments on things that are not good.

 

Next Meeting

20 Nov 2019: Meeting #8

Dear Colleagues,

The eighth Cambridge Brain MRI Meeting will be held on Wednesday 20th Nov 2019 at 15.00 - 17.00. The meeting will be in the Herchel Smith Ground Floor Seminar Room, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, (https://goo.gl/oYgMtp).

We are delighted to welcome Lars Muckli from Glasgow and Shaihan Malik from London as external speakers, and Zhongzhao Teng from Cambridge.

Programme

Chair: TBC

15.00-15.40      Lars Muckli, Glasgow : Visual Predictions in different layers of visual cortex

Normal brain function involves the interaction of internal processes with incoming sensory stimuli. We have created a series of brain imaging experiments that sample internal models and feedback mechanisms in early visual cortex. Primary visual cortex (V1) is the entry-stage for cortical processing of visual information. We can show that there are two information counter-streams concerned with: (1) retinotopic visual input and (2) top-down predictions of internal models generated by the brain. Our results speak to the conceptual framework of predictive coding. Internal models amplify and disamplify incoming information. The brain is a prediction-machinery. Healthy brain function will strike a balance between precision of prediction and prediction update based on prediction error. Our results incorporate state of the art, layer-specific ultra-high field fMRI and other imaging techniques. We argue that fMRI with it’s capability of measuring dendritic energy consumption is sensitive to record activity in different parts of layer spanning neurons which enriches our computational understanding of counter stream brain mechanisms.

15.40.16.20       Shaihan Malik, King's College London :  Parallel transmit MRI for improved data quality at (ultra)high field

In the last ten years parallel RF transmit (pTx) technology has become integrated into clinical MRI systems and is now a mainstay of 7T systems in particular. By introducing additional degrees of freedom to control the RF fields produced within the scanner, pTx offers the ability to improve uniformity of signal and contrast, and to make scanning more efficient. However use of pTx is not always straightforward, and there are different levels at which the technology can be used to interact with the pulse sequence being used. In this talk I will review the scope of how pTx could be used to enhance brain imaging at (ultra)high field and discuss some of the methods developed at KCL on both 3T and 7T systems. 

16.20-16.40      Zhongzhao Teng, Dept of Radiology, Cambridge

Atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability assessment.

16.40-16.45      Radiographer update Vicky Lupson

16.45                 Refreshments and Discussion

If you have anything you would like to present at this or future meetings we would love to hear from you.

With best wishes

Chris Rodgers, Rik Henson, Tom Cope

 

 

Future Meeting Schedule 

If you have anything you would like to present at a future meeting, we would love to hear from you.

Spring 2020

Internal speaker: Rong Ye.

 

Previous Meetings

18 Sep 2019: Meeting #7

The seventh Cambridge Brain MRI Meeting was on Wednesday 18th Sep 2019 at 15.00 - 17.00.

Programme

15.00-15.40      Emrah Duzel, DZNE

Emrah is Site Speaker and Head of Clinical Research of the site Magdeburg. His research centres around studying memory problems in Alzheimer's patients and healthy older people. These problems are an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD) but they also often occur in healthy older people. Experimental and clinical data shows that cognitive and physical training can improve the memory function of healthy older people and might also improve the memory function in the early stage of AD.However, the specific prerequisites, neurobiological modes of action, and clinical conditions of training-dependent improvements have not been systematically studied yet.

15.40.16.00       Marco Egle, Cambridge      

The PRESERVE clinical trial

16.00-16.20      Coco Newton, Cambridge

7Tesla imaging in the Entorhinal CoRtex-hippocampal circuit in PREVENT (ENCRYPT) study           

16.20                 Refreshments and Discussion

 

8 May 2019: Meeting #6

The sixth Cambridge Brain MRI Meeting was on Wednesday 8th May at 15.00 - 17.00. Our external speakers were Alexandra Young from UCL and Rui Teixeira from KCL as well as Naomi Deakin from Cambridge.

Programme

Chair: Chris Rodgers

15.00-15.30      Alexandra Young, UCL.      

Modelling the progression and heterogeneity of neurodegenerative diseases

15.30.16.00       Rui TeixeiraKings College London          

Obtaining fast and reproducible quantitative MRI measures in the brain

 16.00-16.20      Naomi Deakin, Cambridge           

An early review of CArBON – scanning racing drivers at 7T.

16.20-16.30      Radiographer update Vicky Lupson

 

6 Feb 2019: Meeting #5

The fifth Cambridge Brain MRI Meeting took place on Wednesday 6th February 2019 from 15.00 – 17.00.

Programme

Chair: Marta Correia

15.00-15.40 Denis Schluppeck, Nottingham: Measuring residual visual brain networks after stroke
14.40-16.10 Emmanuel Stamatakis, Cambridge: Brain networks and consciousness
16.10-16.30 Marta Correia, Cambridge: Towards accurate and unbiased imaging based differentiation of Parkinson's disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Corticobasal Syndrome
16.30 Refreshments and time to meet

21 Nov 2018: Meeting #4

The fourth Cambridge Brain MRI Meeting took place on Wednesday 21st November 15.00 – 17.00.

Programme

Chairs: Chris Rodgers & Hugh Markus

15.00-15.40       Peter Jezzard, Oxford - Advances in the Assessment of Cerebrovascular Disease using Magnetic Resonance Imaging 

15.40-16.00       Ajay Halai - Predicting behavioural deficits in chronic post stroke aphasia using multi modal imaging

16.00-16.20       Tara White, visiting from Brown University, Providence, RI, USA  - title TBC

16.20-16.40       Kamen Tsvetanov - Understanding age differences in brain  signal variability with  vascular factors

16.40-17.00       Radiographers' update, DataBlitz and discussion

17.00                   Refreshments

 

19 Sep 2018: Meeting #3

The third Cambridge Brain MRI Meeting took place on Wednesday 19th September 15.00 – 17.00.

Programme

Chair: Zoe Kourtzi

15.00-15.40       Charlie Stagg, Oxford - Oscillations and Inhibition: towards an understanding of the neurophysiology of motor learning 

15.40-16.00       Polytimi Frangou - GABA-ergic inhibition for perceptual learning in the visual cortex

16.00-16.20       Thomas Cope - Combining fMRI and PET to explain abnormal tau propagation in dementia

16.20-16.40       Rik Henson - Physical, cognitive and neurobiological characteristics related to head motion during brain scanning

16.40-17.00       DataBlitz and discussion

17.00                   Refreshments

 

6 Jun 2018: Meeting #2

Following the success of the inaugural Cambridge Brain MRI Meeting, the second meeting took place on Wednesday 6th June at 15.00 – 17.00.

Programme

15.00-15.45       Gert Jan Biessels      7T MRI in cerebrovascular disease

14.45-16.00       Josh Kaggie             Multi-Parametric Brain Mapping

16.00-16.15       Pei Huang                7T Laminar-specific MRI

16.15-16.30       Su Li                       Brain Imaging in Dementia

16.30-17.00       DataBlitz and discussion

 

28 Mar 2018: Meeting #1

Chris Rodgers. "The WBIC: Sequences à la carte and plans for the future"
Guy Williams. "Handling the data: facilities, expertise and networks"
Catarina Rua. "MT and QSM of the Human Locus Coeruleus and Substantia Nigra at 7T"
Alex Murley. "A user's perspective on scanning at 7T"

Followed by refreshments and opportunity for discussion.