Guess who’s back!!!
We hope that you have had a safe and restful summer! We are excited to resume our monthly newsletter for the academic year! We are also resuming our Molecular Connectivity Online Series, MCOS!
Thank you to everyone who attended the June MCOS with Tommaso Volpi, PhD, the recording from his talk can be found here and slides here.
Please stay tuned for further announcements as well as links to recordings from MCOS talks and last year’s Symposium coming soon!
Please join us on Friday September 20th October 18th, 2024, 15:00 CEST, 9:00 EDT for our MCOS with Igor Yakushev, MD, who will discuss findings related to test-retest reproducibility of structural, functional and molecular estimates of brain connectivity at rest.
Please find further details and registration information below!
We are pleased to announce the next MCOS talk featuring Igor Yakushev, PhD!
Date: September 20th October 18th, 2024
Time: 15:00 CET, 9:00 EST
Title: Test-retest reproducibility of structural and proxy estimates of brain connectivity at rest
Please join us for this 30 minute presentation to be followed by discussion (~25 minutes).
Please register here.
Abstract: While structural connectivity (SC) is indicative of actual anatomical connectivity and derived at a single subject level, proxy estimates of brain connectivity such as functional connectivity (FC) from functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), intersubject covariance of regional gray matter volume (GMVcov) from structural MRI, and intersubject covariance of regional 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake (FDGcov) from positron emission tomography are derived from statistical dependencies between regional measurements. To understand, in how far these estimates are able to capture physiological and pathological changes in brain connectivity, knowledge on their reproducibility is essential. In this study, we determined reproducibility of group level SC, FC, GMVcov, and FDGcov in the same 55 healthy subjects at rest using a simultaneous PET/MRI acquisition protocol. Reproducibility was determined using Spearman’s correlation coefficient, coefficient of variation, and proportion of repeatedly (test and retest) present connections.
Igor Yakushev obtained his MD in 2010 from the University of Mainz, Germany. In 2012, after residency in Psychiatry and Neurology, he moved to Munich for residency in Nuclear Medicine at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. Since 2013 he has led the research group “Multimodal imaging of normal and pathological cognition”. Since 2015 he is the Head of Neuroimaging, since 2018 Senior Consultant in Nuclear Medicine at the Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, TUM. He is an Associate Faculty at the Munich Center for NeuroSciences “Brain and Mind”. Igor Yakushev has served in the Board of Directors of the Brain Imaging Council, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, as well as in the Neuroimaging Committee, European Association of Nuclear Medicine. His research is focused on mechanisms of brain connectivity and development of imaging-based biomarkers for neurodegenerative and neuro-oncological disorders.
You can find more about Igor here!
The MCOS promotes rigor in research and resource sharing. We aim to hold MCOS every third Friday of the month, subject to change due to speaker availability.
The following MCOS seminar will be held on Friday, October 18th November 22nd, 2024, and please note a change in time as it will be held at 22:00 AEST, 14:00 CET, 8:00 EST
Hamish Deery (University of Monash, Australia) will discuss “Metabolic connectivity in ageing”
The subsequent MCOS will be held on Friday, November 22nd TBA, 2025
Mary C. Catanese, PhD (Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA) will discuss “Epigenetic alterations in white matter with age: impacts on structural connectivity and beyond”
Please visit us on social media and stay tuned for further details!
The MCWG Outreach Council invites you to submit information about papers, conferences, presentations or other events or news related to brain and molecular connectivity as well as any job opportunities that you wish to share with the community!
Please share for consideration by the final day of each month using this form.
The MCWG is made up of four international and multidisciplinary councils dedicated to promoting molecular connectivity research via dissemination of methods, results, collaboration, and resource sharing (e.g. datasets, tools) within the scientific community. We encourage the neuroscientific community to take an integrative perspective in study of the brain connectome, where various methods including MRI-based techniques, electrophysiological tools, and molecular imaging advance our understanding of the brain. Please find fundamental questions outlined here: “Brain connectomics: time for a molecular imaging perspective?”
Our website can be found here. We also invite you to join the MCWG!
