Objectives
The Brain Imaging group has eight main objectives with an emphasis on studying specific diseases and a focus on related technical developments.
Our main objectives are:
- Consolidate the fundamental interdisciplinarity of brain imaging work (with physics, statistics, computing, basic and clinical neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience).
- Enhance collaborations with other research groups (eg in ageing and basic neuroscience).
- Attract others to increase the breadth and depth of research and clinical expertise in brain imaging.
- Help achieve a ‘critical mass’ to maximise new ideas and innovative technologies.
- Improve access to other complementary imaging techniques.
- Achieve better use of resources to reduce costs of individual projects, facilitate pilot projects and small projects which might otherwise be difficult to fund, improve knowledge of each other’s techniques, thus avoiding duplication and improve efficiency.
- Facilitate teaching through the supervision of joint studentships, and MSc/PhD programmes, and running a short course in fMRI for postgraduate and research assistants.
- Be more competitive with groups elsewhere in the UK, Europe and the USA and so contribute to the University’s (and Scotland’s) national and international standing.
Main diseases studied
- Stroke (including blood vessel and flow imaging)
- Psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, and depression)
- Creutzfeldt Jacob disease
- Brain tumours
- Ageing processes (including dementia)
Focus for technical developments
- Diffusion tensor imaging
- Perfusion and flow quantification
- Metabolite (spectroscopic) imaging
- Methods for functional MR imaging (fMRI)
- Attempts to simplify image analysis
This article was published on Feb 8, 2012