Neuro-Imaging

Research

The Radiodiagnostic Unit (IMAG ) aims at participating to the technological run-up in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and computing methods to advance the medical research and improve the practice in Radiology.
MRI is a highly interdisciplinary research area. Projects developed within IMAG draw on a opened technical platform (three 1.5T MRI scanners plus one 36 MR surgical suite for intraoperative cerebral and spinal studies) as well as on knowledge in several fields such as neuroimaging, abdominal and thoracic imaging , musculoskeletal imaging, pediatric imaging, vascular and interventional imaging, women’s imaging, physics, animal experimentation, signal and image processing and statistics - example of imaging.

Our research pursues two complementary aims: to develop new methods in signal processing to better highlight the anatomy or physiology of SNC, and to study a disease or a specific brain function by using the techniques we master.

Moreover, our domain of expertise also includes the head and neck sphere. Beside our own research, our group is at the center of multiple collaborations and provides to all researchers the technical platform (mainly whole body magnetic resonance imaging) and the advanced expertise they need to conduct their experiments. This is especially true for functional MRI.

A partial list of our equipment is available here

Website: www.rdgn.ucl.ac.be

Team

Principal investigators

Thierry DUPREZ, MD
Guy COSNARD, MD, until 2011
Nicolas MICHOUX, PhD – physicist (part time IoNS – IREC)
Frank PEETERS, PhD – physicist (part time IoNS – IREC)
Jorge Abarca-Quinones, MS, until 2010 (part time IoNS – IREC)

Collaborations

A. National collaborations

cerebro-spinal and head & neck diagnostic imaging et tête & cou for all clinicians involved
Reference centre for refractory epilepsy
Cancer Centre(St Luc)
Department of Neurosurgery (St Luc):
Intraoperative IRM
Epilepsy surgery
Department of Neurology (St Luc):
Ischemic stroke (Dr A. Peeters)
Therapeutic trials
IRMf for study on encoding encoding in episodic memory in pre-dementia (Prof A Ivanoiu)
Unit of Molecular Imaging and Experimental Radiotherapy (IMRE-St Luc)
Multimodality imaging and correlation with TEP (human or micro-TEP animal)
Therapeutic monitoring of gliomas
Head & Neck Oncology (Prof. V.Gregoire)
Department of stomatology and Maxillofacial Surgery (St Luke)
Robustness of cephalometric measurements from CT 3D scan (Prof H Reychler)
IRMf for studying cortical activation during tactile stimulation of sane teeth and implants.
Laboratory of Neural Engineering and Rehabilitation (GREN, Faculty of Medicine, UCL)
IRMf for studying the contribution of the ventral stream during use of substitution visual prosthesis by the vision (Prof. A. De Volder)
IRMf for studying the involvement of occipital cortex in olfaction and semantic processing of odors in the event of early visual deprivation (Prof A De Volder)
Cognition and development Neuroscience (NEUROCS, Faculty of Psychology, UCL):
IRMf for studying neural correlates of digital processing (Prof. M Pesenti, M Andres)
IRMf for studying the lack of recognition of facial expressions in the alcoholic subject and the sensitivity of alcoholic subject to social exclusion (F. Joassin, P Maurage), in collaboration with the psychiatric service (St Luc, Prof. P Timary)
IRMf for studying neural correlates of symbolic comparison of numbers in case of developmental dyscalculia (Prof. P. Noel)
IRMf for studying the reorganization of semantic functions in case of extensive damage to left temporal lobe (Prof A Pillon)
Unit of Neurophysiology (NEFY, Faculty of Medicine, UCL)
IRMf for studying the coordination of bilateral movements (J.Duque)
Images anatomical support for transcranial magnetic stimulation (Prof. Olivier E)
Localization of electrodes in the monkey (Prof M Missal)
Unit of Rehabilitation Unit (READ, Faculty of Medicine, UCL)
Study by DTI on lesions of corticospinal tract in case of congenital hemiplegia (Prof. JL Thonnard)
IRMf for studying cortical reorganization in taking manual precision in the chronic phase after stroke and effect of a specific rehabilitation (Prof. JL Thonnard)
Unit of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Radiopharmacy (CMFA, Faculty of Medicine, UCL)
Comparison of MR proton spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy for the analysis of tumors in rats (Prof G Muccioli)
Unit of Gastroenterology (Caen, Faculty of Medicine, UCL)
PCR analysis of gene expression of choline transporters and choline kinase from tumors of rats and compared with proton MR spectroscopy(Prof I Leclercq)

B. International collaborations

Auvergne University, Department of Neurosurgery (Prof. J-J Lemaire), Clermont-Ferrand, France
Identification of targets for the "Deep Brain Stimulation", tractography
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Radiology (Prof. S. Mori), Baltimore, USA
DTI and tractography
University of Luxembourg, EMACS Unit, FLSHASE (Ch Schiltz), Walferdange, Luxembourg
IRMf for studying attentional processes, memory of visual-spatial working and the genesis of numerical representations.

Publications

Significant publications