Papers by Sebastian Baecke
Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine, 2018
Objectives We assessed the use of high-resolution ultra-high-field diffusion magnetic resonance i... more Objectives We assessed the use of high-resolution ultra-high-field diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) to determine neuronal fiber orientation density functions (fODFs) throughout the human brain, including gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and small intertwined structures in the cerebellopontine region. Materials and methods We acquired 7-T whole-brain dMRI data of 23 volunteers with 1.4-mm isotropic resolution; fODFs were estimated using constrained spherical deconvolution. Results High-resolution fODFs enabled a detailed view of the intravoxel distributions of fiber populations in the whole brain. In the brainstem region, the fODF of the extra-and intrapontine parts of the trigeminus could be resolved. Intrapontine trigeminal fiber populations were crossed in a network-like fashion by fiber populations of the surrounding cerebellopontine tracts. In cortical GM, additional evidence was found that in parts of primary somatosensory cortex, fODFs seem to be oriented less perpendicular to the cortical surface than in GM of motor, premotor, and secondary somatosensory cortices. Conclusion With 7-T MRI being introduced into clinical routine, high-resolution dMRI and derived measures such as fODFs can serve to characterize fine-scale anatomic structures as a prerequisite to detecting pathologies in GM and small or intertwined WM tracts.
Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging, 2013
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allows characterizing and exploiting diffusion anisotropy effects,... more Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allows characterizing and exploiting diffusion anisotropy effects, thereby providing important details about tissue microstructure. A major application in neuroimaging is the so-called fiber tracking where neuronal connections between brain regions are determined non-invasively by DTI. Combining these neural pathways within the human brain with the localization of activated brain areas provided by functional MRI offers important information about functional connectivity of brain regions. However, DTI suffers from severe signal reduction due to the diffusion-weighting. Ultra-high field (UHF) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) should therefore be advantageous to increase the intrinsic signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This in turn enables to acquire high quality data with increased resolution, which is beneficial for tracking more complex fiber structures. However, UHF MRI imposes some difficulties mainly due to the larger B1 inhomogeneity compared to 3T MRI. We therefore optimized the parameters to perform DTI at a 7 Tesla whole body MR scanner equipped with a high performance gradient system and a 32-channel head receive coil. A Stesjkal Tanner spin-echo EPI sequence was used, to acquire 110 slices with an isotropic voxel-size of 1.2 mm covering the whole brain. 60 diffusion directions were scanned which allows calculating the principal direction components of the diffusion vector in each voxel. The results prove that DTI can be performed with high quality at UHF and that it is possible to explore the SNT benefit of the higher field strength. Combining UHF fMRI data with UHF DTI results will therefore be a major step towards better neuroimaging methods.
What they see is what they get? An fMRI-study on neural correlates of attractive packaging
Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2008
... Particularly, we want to focus on the question whether attractive packages yield stronger act... more ... Particularly, we want to focus on the question whether attractive packages yield stronger activity in brain structures that drive attention and memor-ization (Kastner and Ungerleider, 2000) as well as object processing (Erk et al., 2002; Grill-Spector, 2003; Kenning et al., 2007b ...
Scientific reports, 2015
Real-time functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtfMRI) is used mainly for neurofeedback or for ... more Real-time functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtfMRI) is used mainly for neurofeedback or for brain-computer interfaces (BCI). But multi-site rtfMRI could in fact help in the application of new interactive paradigms such as the monitoring of mutual information flow or the controlling of objects in shared virtual environments. For that reason, a previously developed framework that provided an integrated control and data analysis of rtfMRI experiments was extended to enable multi-site rtfMRI. Important new components included a data exchange platform for analyzing the data of both MR scanners independently and/or jointly. Information related to brain activation can be displayed separately or in a shared view. However, a signal calibration procedure had to be developed and integrated in order to permit the connecting of sites that had different hardware and to account for different inter-individual brain activation levels. The framework was successfully validated in a proof-of-princ...
Experimental Brain Research, 2009
In natural environments depth-related information has to be extracted very fast from binocular di... more In natural environments depth-related information has to be extracted very fast from binocular disparity even if cues are presented shortly. However, few studies used efMRI to study depth perception. We therefore analyzed extension and localization of activation evoked by depth-by-disparity stimuli that were displayed for 1 s. As some clinical as well as neuroimaging studies had found a right-hemispheric lateralization of
High-dimensional data Autoregressive process Stabilized multivariate tests Block-wise permutation... more High-dimensional data Autoregressive process Stabilized multivariate tests Block-wise permutation including a random shift a b s t r a c t
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2015
People around the world suffer chronic lower back pain. Because spine imaging often does not expl... more People around the world suffer chronic lower back pain. Because spine imaging often does not explain the degree of perceived pain reported by patients, the role of the processing of nociceptor signals in the brain as the basis of pain perception is gaining increased attention. Modern neuroimaging techniques (including functional and morphometric methods) have produced results that suggest which brain areas may play a crucial role in the perception of acute and chronic pain. In this study, we examined 12 patients with chronic low back pain and sciatica, both resulting from lumbar disc herniation. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain was performed 1 day prior to and about 4 weeks after microsurgical lumbar discectomy. The subsequent MRI revealed an increase in gray matter volume in the basal ganglia but a decrease in volume in the hippocampus, which suggests the complexity of the network that involves movement, pain processing, and aspects of memory. Interestingly, volume changes in the hippocampus were significantly correlated to preoperative pain intensity but not to the duration of chronic pain. Mapping structural changes of the brain that result from lumbar disc herniation has the potential to enhance our understanding of the neuropathology of chronic low back pain and sciatica and therefore may help to optimize the decisions we make about conservative and surgical treatments in the future. The possibility of illuminating more of the details of central pain processing in lumbar disc herniation, as well as the accompanying personal and economic impact of pain relief worldwide, calls for future large-scale clinical studies.
Functional MR imaging (fMRI) enables to detect different activated brain areas according to the p... more Functional MR imaging (fMRI) enables to detect different activated brain areas according to the performed tasks. However, data are usually evaluated after the experiment, which prohibits intra-experiment optimization or more sophisticated applications such as biofeedback experiments. Using a human-brain-interface (HBI), subjects are able to communicate with external programs, e.g. to navigate through virtual scenes, 1 or to experience and modify their own brain activation. 2 These applications require the real-time analysis and classification of activated brain areas. Our paper presents first results of different strategies for real-time pattern analysis and classification realized within a flexible experiment control system that enables the volunteers to move through a 3D virtual scene in real-time using finger tapping tasks, and alternatively only thought-based tasks.
A recent paper by showed that up to 70% false positive results may occur when analyzing functiona... more A recent paper by showed that up to 70% false positive results may occur when analyzing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data using the statistical parametric mapping (SPM) software, which may mainly be caused by insufficient compensation for the temporal correlation between successive scans. Here, we show that a blockwise permutation method can be an effective alternative to the standard correction method for the correlated residuals in the general linear model, assuming an AR(1)-model as used in SPM for analyzing fMRI data. The blockwise permutation approach including a random shift developed by our group (Adolf et al., 2011) accounts for the temporal correlation structure of the data without having to provide a specific definition of the underlying autocorrelation model. 1465 publicly accessible resting-state data sets were re-analyzed, and the results were compared with those of . It was found that with the new permutation method the nominal familywise error rate for the detection of activated voxels could be maintained approximately under even the most critical conditions in which Eklund et al. found the largest deviations from the nominal error level. Thus, the method presented here can serve as a tool to ameliorate the quality and reliability of fMRI data analyses.
PLOS One, 2011
Negotiation and trade typically require a mutual interaction while simultaneously resting in unce... more Negotiation and trade typically require a mutual interaction while simultaneously resting in uncertainty which decision the partner ultimately will make at the end of the process. Assessing already during the negotiation in which direction one's counterpart tends would provide a tremendous advantage. Recently, neuroimaging techniques combined with multivariate pattern classification of the acquired data have made it possible to discriminate
PLoS ONE, 2014
Chronic pain is one of the most common health complaints in industrial nations. For example, chro... more Chronic pain is one of the most common health complaints in industrial nations. For example, chronic low back pain (cLBP) disables millions of people across the world and generates a tremendous economic burden. While previous studies provided evidence of widespread functional as well as structural brain alterations in chronic pain, little is known about cortical changes in patients suffering from lumbar disc herniation. We investigated morphometric alterations of the gray and white matter of the brain in patients suffering from LDH. The volumes of the gray and white matter of 12 LDH patients were determined in a prospective study and compared to the volumes of healthy controls to distinguish local differences. High-resolution MRI brain images of all participants were performed using a 3 Tesla MRI scanner. Voxel-based morphometry was used to investigate local differences in gray and white matter volume between patients suffering from LDH and healthy controls. LDH patients showed significantly reduced gray matter volume in the right anterolateral prefrontal cortex, the right temporal lobe, the left premotor cortex, the right caudate nucleus, and the right cerebellum as compared to healthy controls. Increased gray matter volume, however, was found in the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the left precuneal cortex, the left fusiform gyrus, and the right brainstem. Additionally, small subcortical decreases of the white matter were found adjacent to the left prefrontal cortex, the right premotor cortex and in the anterior limb of the left internal capsule. We conclude that the lumbar disk herniation can lead to specific local alterations of the gray and white matter in the human brain. The investigation of LDH-induced brain alterations could provide further insight into the underlying nature of the chronification processes and could possibly identify prognostic factors that may improve the conservative as well as the operative treatment of the LDH. Citation: Luchtmann M, Steinecke Y, Baecke S, Lü tzkendorf R, Bernarding J, et al. (2014) Structural Brain Alterations in Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Preliminary Study. PLoS ONE 9(3): e90816.
Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2012
We develop informatical concepts, which allow the creation of own VR-fMRI paradigms. We develop n... more We develop informatical concepts, which allow the creation of own VR-fMRI paradigms. We develop neuroinformatical techniques which provide real-time VR-fMRI studies. We embed an easy-to-handle integration concept for virtual environment files. We validate the application in a real-time VR-fMRI study with spatial memory topic. Subjects indicate higher interaction and more attention than in common fMRI studies.
Event-related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of a Low Dose of Dexmedetomidine that Impairs Long-term Memory
Anesthesiology, 2012
Alcohol, 2013
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows observing cerebral activity not only in separ... more Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows observing cerebral activity not only in separated cortical regions but also in functionally coupled cortical networks. Although moderate doses of ethanol slowdown the neurovascular coupling, the functions of the primary sensorimotor and the visual system remain intact. Yet little is known about how more complex interactions between cortical regions are affected even at moderate doses of alcohol. Therefore the method of psychophysiological interaction (PPI) was applied to analyze ethanol-induced effects on the effective connectivity in the visuomotor system. Fourteen healthy social drinkers with no personal history of neurological disorders or substance abuse were examined. In a test/re-test design they served as their own controls by participating in both the sober and the ethanol condition. All participants were scanned in a 3 T MR scanner before and after ingestion of a body-weight-dependent amount of ethanol calculated to achieve a blood alcohol concentration of 1.0&. PPIs were calculated for the primary visual cortex, the supplementary motor area, and the left and right primary motor cortex using the statistical software package SPM. The PPI analysis showed selective disturbance of the effective connectivity between different cortical areas. The regression analysis revealed the influence of the supplementary motor area on connected regions like the primary motor cortex to be decreased yet preserved. However, the connection between the primary visual cortex and the posterior parietal cortex was more severely impaired by the influence of ethanol, leading to an uncoupled regression between these regions. The decreased effective connectivity in the visuomotor system suggests that complex tasks requiring interaction or synchronization between different brain areas are affected even at moderate levels of alcohol. This finding may have important consequences for determining which components of demanding tasks such as driving a car might be compromised earlier than the functions of the main cortical motor and visual areas.
Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging, 2013
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Papers by Sebastian Baecke