The main research interests of the functional imaging unit are listed below.
Fundamental understanding of brain physiology is interesting both for fundamental scientific reasons and a prerequisite for understanding and treatment of many neurological diseases. We study the brain with advanced functional imaging methods, use pharmacological as well as respiratory perturbations, and develop new quantitative methods to extract physiological information on the resting and working brain.
Determination of the vascular parameters of the brain is important both in disease and for basic understanding of brain physiology. Prof. Henrik Larsson has pioneered a T1 weighted perfusion imaging method based on bolus-tracking. This approach gives a better quantitative determination of cerebral blood flow and has less image distortions than other MR methods. The activities range from optimization of MR sequences and processing algorithms with regard to precision, spatial coverage and speed, to clinical applications in e.g. brain tumor patients.
Functional MR imaging (fMRI) of brain activity is in most cases based on the BOLD effect, which measures the change in deoxy-hemoglobin. This vascular response is only an indirect measure of neuronal activity. To investigate the coupling between the neuronal activity and the BOLD signal we use a simultaneous EEG and fMRI measurement. We study the coupling both in healthy volunteers and neurological patients.
Functional imaging methods may give a better understanding of brain diseases, and eventually lead to better diagnostics and treatment. We perform functional imaging on patients with diseases such as optic neuritis, migraine, Tourettes syndrome, elilepsy, schizophrenia, brain tumors and stroke.