Projects

Several research groups of the Erasmus MC participate in a number of fMRI studies. Here you can get an overview of these projects.

Collaborations

The following departments of the Erasmus MC are actively involved in our fMRI research:

Projects

Eye Movements

Several types of eye movements can be distinguished: the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), the optokinetic reflex, saccades, fixations and smooth pursuit. The combinations and interactions contribute to the two basic functions of eye movements: the stabilization of gaze and the allocation of gaze to new positions. We study brain activation patterns associated with the different type of eye movements.

Participating researchers: C.K. Schraa-Tam, A. van der Lugt, M. Smits (Radiology), P.C.A. van Broekhoven, J.N. van der Geest, M.A. Frens (Neuroscience)

Mirror-induced motor imagery

A recently developed rehabilitation therapy for patients with a dysfunctional arm or hand due to stroke or dystrophy is mirror induced motor imagery ('mirror therapy). Using a mirror, the view of the intact hand is superimposed on the (unseen) affected hand. Patients often report pain relief in the affected hand after several days of training. We study the changes in activation patterns of the central nervous system induced by mirror therpay.

Participating researchers: R.W. Selles (Rehabilitation), K. Matthys (University Hospital Ghent, Belgium), M. Smits, A. van der Lugt (Radiology), J.N. van der Geest, M. Huibers (Neuroscience)

Functional MRI of working memory and attention in patients with postconcussion syndrome

Postconcussion syndrome comprises a large variety of complaints, such as headache, cognitive complaints, fatigue and depression. It affects 15-30% of patients after minor head injury. The etiology of this syndrome is unkown and diagnosis is difficult, since neurological and neuropsychological examinations are usually normal, as are conventional imaging studies with CT and MRI of the brain. Functional MRI is a promising new tool in both diagnosing this syndrome and understanding the underlying neural abnormalities. We postulate that postconcussion syndrome is caused by brain damage, undetectable by conventional imaging techniques, and affects - amongst other things - cognitive functioning. Neural plasticity compensating for these abnormalities may explain normal neuropsychological tests, and can be detected with functional MRI as increased neural activity. In this study minor head injury patients and healthy volunteers undergo fMRI to evaluate differences in neural activity while performing tasks of working memory, continuous attention and selective attention.

Participating researchers: M. Smits, A. van der Lugt (Radiology), D.W.J. Dippel (Neurology)

Incorporating fMRI into diffusion tensor tractography in the pre-operative assessment of the corticospinal tract in brain tumor patients

Neurosurgeons increasingly use BOLD fMRI to plan their surgical procedures to maximize resection of tumor tissue while preserving eloquent brain areas. However, neither fMRI nor anatomical MR images can provide information on the (invisible) course of the important subcortical and deep white matter tracts, such as the corticospinal tract (CST). Diffusion tensor tractography (DT-t) is a relatively new MRI techique that provides information on the microstructural organization of white matter in vivo. This permits visualization of the white matter tracts, by choosing seed and target regions of interest (ROI). Anatomical landmarks may be insufficient to position the seed ROI to visualize the CST and its most important subcomponents, i.e. the hand and the foot fibers. Purpose of this study is to evaluate whether selecting fMRI activation areas as seed ROIs for DT-t yields useful pre-operative information on the spatial relationship between the CST and tumor borders.

Participating researchers: M. Smits, M.W. Vernooij, A. van der Lugt (Radiology)

The effect of severe neonatal tissue damage on brain development and the processing of pain in the brain

Although neonates have an immature central nervous system, they are able to feel pain. The extreme immaturity of the central nervous system makes neonates very vulnerable to develop long-term sequelae of pain. Neonatal pain and tissue damage have been suggested to affect brain development, which may explain observed alterations of pain perception. Functional MRI is used to provide the neuroanatomical evidence that is now still lacking. Healthy adults are studied first. Findings from this study will be used to set up a second protocol in healthy children, the results of which will then be used to set up a third study evaluating with fMRI the central processing of pain in children with a history of neonatal surgery and tissue damage.

Participating researchers: J.W.B. Peters (Pediatric Surgery), J.N. van der Geest (Neuroscience), A. van der Lugt, M. Smits (Radiology)

Publications

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Papers

Abstracts

Theses