Leading brain scientists meet in Milwaukee to explore the resting brain and improve diagnosis of neurological disorders
Top neuroscience researchers from around the world will convene in Milwaukee on Sept. 16–19, 2010, for the Second International Conference on Resting-State Functional Brain Connectivity. Hosted by the Medical College of Wisconsin, the meeting brings together roughly 350 scientists from leading academic centers in North America, Europe, and Asia to share advances in resting-state functional MRI (r-fMRI), brain connectivity mapping, and applications for understanding thinking, development, neurological disease, and treatment response.
Resting-state functional MRI, first demonstrated by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1995, revealed that the brain remains active even when a person is not engaged in a task. The r-fMRI technique detects spontaneous, ongoing communication between brain regions, producing a connectivity “fingerprint” that can reveal altered activity patterns associated with disease. Conference organizers say these measures hold promise for more sensitive diagnostic tests, monitoring disease progression, and evaluating treatment effects.
Christopher Pawela, Ph.D., conference chair and assistant professor of plastic surgery and biophysics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, emphasized the importance of collaboration at this meeting: “This conference gives key investigators in the field a focused opportunity to exchange methods and findings, moving us closer to revealing the brain’s tightly held secrets and to translating those discoveries into better treatments.”
Industry partners are taking an active interest in resting-state connectivity as a clinical tool. Corporate sponsors for the conference include Philips Medical, GE Healthcare, Siemens Medical, Toshiba Medical, and Abbott Laboratories, reflecting broad interest in translating r-fMRI research into diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
How r-fMRI works: during a resting-state scan, a volunteer lies still inside an MRI scanner while spontaneous fluctuations in blood oxygenation and related signals are recorded. Resting-state connectivity quantifies the strength of synchronized signal fluctuations between functionally related regions in the absence of external tasks. These interregional correlations are dominated by slow, persistent signals—typically in the 0.01–0.10 Hz range, roughly six cycles per minute—that reflect coordinated network activity across the brain.
Researchers have demonstrated that resting connectivity patterns vary with age, sex, and individual differences, and are sensitive to neurological and psychiatric conditions. An important research goal in the field is to build comprehensive maps of the brain’s networks and pathways so clinicians and scientists can better understand how diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and addiction alter connectivity and how therapies can restore functional networks.
Medical College of Wisconsin investigators are using connectivity measures as candidate biomarkers for presymptomatic detection of Alzheimer’s disease. By comparing connectivity in cognitively normal volunteers, people with mild cognitive impairment, and patients with Alzheimer’s, researchers aim to identify early changes and to test whether medications or interventions can prevent or reverse weakened connections. Shi-Jiang Li, Ph.D., professor of biophysics, and Piero Antuono, M.D., professor of neurology, will present this work at the conference.
Highlighted presentations
Brain Connectivity Database
Bharat Biswal, Rutgers University
Dr. Biswal, who as a graduate student helped pioneer resting-state studies, will present a brain connectivity database he developed from 2,000 healthy subjects. This normative baseline supports comparison across disease populations and facilitates robust, reproducible studies of brain networks.
Mathematical Modeling of Brain Regions
Ed Bullmore, University of Cambridge
Olaf Sporns, Indiana University
Both speakers will discuss mathematical and computational models that formalize the organization and dynamics of large-scale brain networks, tools that are essential for interpreting connectivity data and linking structure to function.
Genetics of Brain Connectivity
F. Xavier Castellanos, New York University
Dr. Castellanos will address how genetic variation contributes to individual differences in brain connectivity, and how genetic approaches can clarify vulnerability to neuropsychiatric conditions.
Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Michael Greicius, Stanford University
Dr. Greicius will review evidence that resting-state connections are altered in psychiatric illnesses and will discuss how r-fMRI may improve diagnostic specificity and guide treatment strategies.
Consciousness Research
Melanie Boly, University of Liege, Belgium
Dr. Boly will present work on cerebral connectivity in disorders of consciousness, including coma, and how network measures reflect residual brain function.
Effects of Anesthesia on Resting Brain Activity
Anthony Hudetz, Medical College of Wisconsin
Dr. Hudetz will share findings on how general anesthesia influences consciousness and show that substantial resting-brain activity persists even under anesthetic conditions.
These sessions and many others at the conference will advance methods, share large-scale datasets, and highlight translational applications of resting-state fMRI—from basic mapping of healthy brain networks to developing biomarkers for early diagnosis and treatment monitoring in Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, addiction, and other disorders.
Contact: Toranj Marphetia
Source: Medical College of Wisconsin