Frank Angenstein

Research Group Leader of Functional Neuroimaging at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases

By now, functional magnetic resonance imaging is an extensively used approach to noninvasively map brain responses to a variety of different conditions with a high spatial resolution. Therefore, fMRI has become a very helpful tool for cognitive neuroscience. In contrast to cognitive neuroscience, fMRI is only very hesitantly used for clinical applications based on the fact that not only normal (expected) fMRI responses are often hard to interpret but that in particular abnormal (e.g., missing, exaggerated, spatially and/or temporally deviant) fMRI responses are not unambiguously explainable. The main problem with interpreting fMRI results is the nature of the recorded signals. FMRI responses only reflect hemodynamic responses, which in turn are locally controlled by neuronal activity. Therefore, we study mechanisms linking distinct variations in neuronal activities with corresponding hemodynamic responses to implement fMRI as diagnostic tool.

Keywords: fMRI – Hippocampus – Neurovascular coupling – Structural MRI – Dopamine

Location: LIN, DZNE

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