[BIC-announce] Tractometry talk by Sonya Bells from CUBRIC

[Nikola Stikov]

Dear colleagues,

Dr. Sonya Bells from the lab of Dr. Derek Jones at Cardiff University will
be at Polytechnique on Tuesday to discuss her pioneering work on MR
tractometry and its integration with MEG.  She is considering joining our
group, so please let me know if you want to meet and discuss future
collaborations. Below is a summary of her talk and a short bio, I look
forward to seeing some of you on Tuesday,

Nikola

Title: Tractometry & Applications for Neuroimaging.

Location: Ecole Polytechnique, room M-6001
<http://www.neuro.polymtl.ca/doku.php?id=contact>

Time: Tuesday, August 4 at noon

Summary/Abstract:

Tractometry is a comprehensive multi-contrast quantitative assessment of
white matter microstructure along specific tracts that holds promise for
understanding brain structure across a range of developmental and clinical
states. Tractometry combines macromolecular measurements from optimized
quantitative magnetization transfer imaging, measurements of multiple T2
species from relaxometry, and ‘axon density’ measurements from CHARMED
along specific white matter pathways reconstructed from diffusion MRI.
These quantitative metrics are derived from completely different physical
principles and therefore are likely sensitive to different subcomponents of
white matter microstructure.  Structural connections formed by white matter
are necessary for functional connections within the brain. We applied the
Tractometry protocol to help explain individual differences in the MEG
responses to a stationary stimulus, which can elicit a transient high
frequency (60-120 Hz) synchronous oscillatory pattern that is transmitted
from the retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and along the tract
optic radiation (OR) to the ipsilateral visual cortex (V1).

Bio:

My interest in imaging physics started more than ten years ago during my
undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph, for which I did a work
placement at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. After completing my
Master of Science in Medical Physics from McMaster University I spent two
years working as a research assistant at the Hospital for Sick Children in
Toronto. During this time I gained a lot of experience scanning patients
and I collaborated on projects focusing on brain function using MEG and
structural measures using MRI.  After completing my PhD in 2009 with Prof.
Derek Jones in CUBRIC (Cardiff University, Wales), I started a postdoctoral
position in the same lab to continue my work on white matter
microstructure. During this time I have developed analysis pipelines that
combine both MEG and MRI measures, which I have shared with other
researchers internally and externally.

-- 
Nikola Stikov, PhD
Assistant Professor
Institute of Biomedical Engineering
École Polytechnique/Montreal Heart Institute
tel: 514 340 5121 (ext. 4549)
web: www.neuro.polymtl.ca
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.bic.mni.mcgill.ca/pipermail/bic-announce/attachments/20150731/93cad131/attachment.html>