Groups and projects

Movement disorders and sensorimotor plasticity

Head: Bernhard Haslinger  
 
Projects:

• Functional MRI of sensorimotor plasticity, e.g. following motor training in musicians (C. Dresel)
• Functional MRI of sensorimotor plasticity in patients with different movement disorders (focal dystonia, essential tremor, Parkinson's disease) (C. Dresel, F. Castrop)
• Functional (resting state MRI) and structural (diffusion tensor imaging, DTI) connectivity, e.g. following motor training in musicians (C. Dresel, F. Castrop, Y. Li, G. Gora-Stahlberg, A. Jochim)
• Functional (resting state MRI) and structural (diffusion tensor imaging, DTI) connectivity in patients with different movement disorders (focal dystonia, essential tremor, Parkinson's disease, restless legs syndrome)(C. Dresel, F. Castrop, Y. Li, G. Gora-Stahlberg, A. Jochim, C. Ulbricht)
• Longitudinal standardized MRI in patients with different Parkinson-syndromes (A. Jochim, Y. Li)

Neural correlates of (un)consciousness in anesthesia and coma

Head: Ruediger Ilg & Denis Jordan  
 
Projects:

• Simultaneous PET-fMRI & EEG in coma patients (Caroline Mlynarcik, Katharina Merz) in cooperation with the Departments of Neuroradiology and Nuclear medicine (Valentin Riedl, Mathias Lukas) and the Therapiezentrum Burgau (Andreas Bender, www.therapiezentrum-burgau.de)
• Entropy based EEG analysis in patients with disorders of consciousness (Alexander Thul, Sebastian Berger, Maximilian Maurer) in cooperation with the Laboratory for Sleep, Cognition & Consciousness Research at the University of Salzburg (Julia Lechinger and Manuel Schabus, www.sleepscience.at)
• EEG-fMRI analysis of large-scale brain functional networks under anesthesia (Guido Rohrer, Philipp Kohl) in cooperation with the Departments of Anaesthesiology (Andreas Ranft, Sebastian Berger and Eberhard Kochs) and Neuroradiology (Valentin Riedl, Afra Wohlschläger)

Brain structure and function in schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Head: Kathrin Koch  
 
Projects:

• White matter alterations in obsessive-compulsive disorder (Tim Reeß)
• Structural, functional and effective connectivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder (Tim Reeß, in cooperation with Martijn van den Heuvel, Utrecht University)
• Structural and functional substrates of specific symptom dimensions in obsessive-compulsive disorder investigated by multi-variate pattern analysis (Deniz Gürsel)
• Fear learning and extinction processes in obsessive-compulsive disorder (Deniz Gürsel, in cooperation with Victor Spoormaker, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich)
• Functional substrates underlying probabilistic learning processes in obsessive-compulsive disorder (Benita Schmitz-Koep, in cooperation with Klaus Wunderlich, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich)
• Association between white and gray matter alterations (volume, thickness, cortical folding) in schizophrenia (in cooperation with Gerd Wagner, University Hospital Jena)
• Simultaneous PET/fMRI before and after working memory training (Igor Yakushev, Mónica Franco Emch, Isabelle Ripp, Qiong Wu)
• fMRI before and after mindfulness training (Britta Hölzel, María Mora, Benno Bremer)

Investigation of cortical plasticity by navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation: reorganization of human language and motor cortex

Head: Sandro Krieg  
 
Projects:

• Primary motor function within the supplementary motor area (Lucia Bulubasova)
• Refinement of preoperative repetitive navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for surgery of language-eloquent tumors (Sebastian Ille, Nico Sollmann, Chiara Negwer)
• Plasticity of language and motor function in brain tumor patients investigated by navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) (Lucia Bulubasova, Neal Conway)
• Randomized controlled trial on the clinical impact of nTMS in patients with motor eloquent gliomas (multicentric trial; collaborators: Charité Berlin, UCSF, MD Anderson Cancer Center)
• Cortical mapping of computational function by repetitive navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (Stefanie Maurer)
• Neglect induction by repetitive navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (Stefanie Maurer, Katrin Giglhuber)
• Linguistic subfunctions investigated by rTMS (Sandro Krieg in cooperation with Noriko Tanigawa, University of Oxford)
• nTMS-based diffusion tensor imaging fiber tracking in brain tumor patients and healthy subjects (Chiara Negwer, Nico Sollmann)
• Treatment and prevention of surgery-related paresis in brain tumor patients by inducing brain plasticity (Chiara Negwer, Sebastian Ille, Nico Sollmann)
• Induction of connectivity changes within the visual network by repetitive navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (Nico Sollmann, combined fMRI/rTMS study in cooperation with Dr. Dr. Valentin Riedl, Section of Neuroradiology)
• Evaluation of the therapeutic value of transcranial magnetic stimulation for the treatment of chronic orofacial pain (Sandro Krieg, in cooperation with Thomas Mücke, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery)
• Evaluation of the therapeutic value of repetitive periphery magnetic stimulation for the treatment of migraine (Nico Sollmann, in cooperation with Florian Heinen, Department of Pediatrics, LMU München) 
• Treatment of tinnitus by repetitive navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (Nico Sollmann, in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Josef Rauschecker, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Georgetown University, Washington, USA)
• Treatment of postoperative pareses of brain tumor patients by rTMS (Chiara Negwer, Sebastian Ille, Nico Sollmann, Vicki Butenschön)

Morphometry in Multiple Sclerosis

Head: Mark Mühlau  
 
Projects:

 

Gene-MRI: Genetic determinants of the course of Multiple Sclerosis as characterized by MRI (KKNMS; Statistical Genetics, MPI of Psychiatry Munich; Morphometry-in-MS group)

Prognostic value of white-matter lesion shrinking (Viola Pongratz)

MRI characteristics of cognitive impairment (Christina Engl)

Minimal informative white-matter lesion size (Sophia Grahl)

Longitudinal segmentation of white-matter lesions (Paul Schmidt)

Prognostic value of combining evoked potentials and MRI (Alexander Wuschek)

Distant effects of white matter lesions (Matthias Bussas)

PainLabMunich

Head: Markus Ploner  
 
Projects:

• Neurophysiological correlates of tonic pain (Elisabeth May, Moritz Nickel)
• Neurophysiological correlates of chronic pain (Moritz Nickel, Elisabeth May)
• Brain network correlates of chronic and tonic pain (Son Ta Dinh, Elisabeth May, Moritz Nickel)
• Interactions between pain and the motor system (Martina Postorino, Elisabeth May)
• Neurophysiological mediators of perceptual, motor and autonomic components of pain (Laura Tiemann, Elisabeth May)
• Pain in multiple sclerosis (Henrik Heitmann)

MR physics

Head: Christine Preibisch  
 
Projects:

• Implementation and evaluation of novel MR imaging methods as well as support and quality assurance for neuroimaging projects within TUM-NIC
• Development of quantitative imaging methods (transverse relaxation, CBV, CBF) for physiological MRI in patient studies and quantification or calibration of BOLD-based fMRI (Anne Kluge, Stephan Kaczmarz; cooperation: Carl Ganter, Marcus Settles, Dimitrios Karampinos (Radiology); Axel Haase (IMETUM); Ralf Deichmann (Brain Imaging Center, University Frankfurt))
• Investigation of the effects of chronic hypoxia on intrinsic brain network activity and visual attention in patients with high grade carotid artery stenosis (Jens Göttler, Stephan Kaczmarz, Christian Sorg)
• Characterization of hypoxia in high grade glioma using by correlation of simultaneous oxygenation sensitive MRI (MR-rOEF) and 18F-FMISO PET measurements with histology markers (Anne Kluge, Jens Göttler, Benedikt Wiestler; cooperation: Mathias Lukas, Thomas Pyka, Stefan Förster (Nuclear Medicine); Jens Gempt (Neurosurgery); Jürgen Schlegel (Neuropathology))
• Multimodal fMRI and FDG-PET in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's dementia (Isabelle Riederer, Jens Göttler, Christian Sorg; cooperation: Panagiotis Alexopoulos, Timo Grimmer (Dept. of Psychiaty); Peter Bohn, Igor Yakushev, Stefan Förster (Nuclear Medicine))
• Investigation of cortical plasticity in the context of a complex intervention in patients with endometriosis (cooperation: Florian Beissner (University Kassel), Karin Meissner (LMU, Medical Psychology)
• Characterization of hypoxia in patients with acute stroke (Monika Ankenbrank, Alexandra Gersing)
• Quantitative T1 mapping in patients with malignant brain tumors (Annette Förschler, Stefan Motov (Neurosurgery))

Multiscale Imaging of Brain Networks

Head: Valentin Riedl  
 
Projects:

 

How much energy does neuronal communication in brain networks consume?
We address this question with

• simultaneous FDG-PET / fMRI in humans (Lukas Utz; in collaboration with Fahmeed Hyder, Yale University)

What is the direction of neuronal communication in brain networks?

• We test cellular neuroenergetics on the systems level using simultaneous FDG-PET / fMRI in humans
• We test cellular communication using simultaneous Ca-/fMR-Imaging in mice (Judita Huber; in collaboration with Helmuth Adelsberger, Marc-Aurel Busche, Institute of Neuroscience, TUM)
• We directly inhibit/excite neuronal communication using TMS/fMRI in humans (Gabriel Castrillon; in collaboration with Nico Sollmann, Sandro Krieg, Neurosurgery, TUM)

Do inhibitory/excitatory neurotransmitter levels impact on neuronal communication in brain networks?
We address this question with

• simultaneous GABA-/Glutamate-MRS / fMRI in humans (Katarzyna Bienkowska; in collaboration with Ulrich Pilatus, Frankfurt University; Richard Edden, Johns Hopkins University)

Neuropsychiatry and Neuroimaging Lab

Head: Christian Sorg  
 
Projects:

 

Neuropsychiatry/Neuroimaging in the Elderly: Neurodegeneration and Aging

• Alzheimer’s disease: rise and propagation of neurodegenerative signs along brain networks
• Alzheimer’s disease: analyzing MTL dysconnectivity from cortical networks
• Neurodegenerative syndromes: propagation of neurodegenerative signs – an across-syndrome approach (in cooperation with Dr. Janine Diehl-Schmid, Department of Psychiatry, TUM)
• Effects of aging and early Alzheimer’s disease on neuro-cognitive correlates of visual attention (in cooperation with Dr. Kathrin Finke, Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich)
• effects of chronic hypoxia on intrinsic brain network activity and visual attention in patients with high grade carotid artery stenosis (in cooperation with Dr. Christine Preibisch)

Neuropsychiatry/Neuroimaging in Adults: Impaired Behavioral Control in Schizophrenia and Depression

• motivated behavior: neuro-cognitive analysis of impaired reward decision making across schizophrenia and depression (Mihai Avram, Felix Brandl, in Kooperation with Dr. Kathrin Koch, Department of Neuroradiology, TUM, and Dr. Klaus Wunderlich, Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich
• aversive emotional behavior: neuro-cognitive analysis of human aversive emotion regulation
• social behavior: neuro-cognitive analysis of social emotion regulation

Neuropsychiatry/Neuroimaging of Being At-Risk for Behavioral Impairments: Preterm Birth and Infant Regulatory Problems

• long-term effects of preterm delivery on neuro-cognitive measures in adults (in cooperation with Dr. Dieter Wolke, Department of Psychiatry, University of Warwick)
• long-term effects of infant regulatory problems on neuro-cognitive measures in adults (in cooperation with Dr. Dieter Wolke, Department of Psychiatry, University of Warwick)

Analysis of functional connectivity dynamics from fMRI

Head: Afra Wohlschläger  
 
Projects:

• Interaction of intrinsic and evoked brain activity leading to conscious vision: EEG and fMRI investigations (Sarah Glim)
• Sliding window analysis of intrinsic connectivity networks from fMRI in affective disorders (Anja Ries)
• Integration of EEG and fMRI data in the analysis of states of loss of consciousness: cross-frequency coupling and multimodal signal integration (Elmo Sokka)

Multimodal imaging of healthy and pathological cognition

Head: Igor Yakushev  
 
Projects:

• Interrelations between different measures of brain connectivity as provided by multimodal imaging (Sarah Fuenger, Thomas Stadhouders, Guo Tengfei, Dr. Valentin Riedl)
• Covariance information in PET data: relevance in healthy cognition and dementia (Dmitry Titov, Dr. Kuangyu Shi; in cooperation with Dr. Jing Li, Arizona State University)
• PET imaging of beta-amyloid in aging and dementia (Guo Tengfei, Dr. Timo Grimmer, Dr. Stefan Förster)
• Added value of PET-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (Laura Kriett, Anna Schwarz, Dr. Panagiotis Alexopoulos)

Neuroradiopharmacy: Tracer Development and multimodal molecular imaging for diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders (NDD)

Head: Behrooz H. Yousefi  
 
Projects:

• Amyloid Imaging in patients with NDD using 18F-FIBT PET: a pilot study (Timo Grimmer; Kuangyu Shi, Stefan Förster)
• Immunohistochemical study of a novel PAN ligand in Alzheimer's disease (Daniela Scherübl, Alex Drzezga)
• Development and evaluation of tracers for t-protein in neurodegenerative diseases (Miriam Mohring, Sybille Reder and Thomas Arzberger) in cooperation with Günter Höglinger group (TUM, DZNE).
• Development and evaluation of tracers for multimodal imaging of α-synuclein protein in PD and DLB (Thomas Arzberger, Miriam Mohring and Sybille Reder) in cooperation with Günter Höglinger (TUM, DZNE).
• Small animal imaging studies in transgenic t-mouse models of neurodegeneration, using µPET/CT, MRI, histochemistry and autoradiographic cross-evaluation. (Miriam Mohring, Sybille Reder, Thomas Arzberger)