Biomedical Image Analysis

Prof. Dr. Christian Gaser
Dr. Meng Li

About

Beyond clinical questionnaires and scales, psychiatry benefits from the computer-assisted diagnostic, prognosis ascertaining, treatment guiding, and response predicting with in vivo noninvasive brain imaging. Our group focuses on applying neuroimaging and computational neuroscience tools combined to foster our understanding of major mental disorders' neurobiology and led to the implementation of a precision medicine-oriented approach in psychiatry.

Team

• Dr. Katja Franke
• Dr. Robert Dahnke
• Tara Chand
• Nooshin Javaheripour

Projects

1. Development of algorithms and tools for fundamental MR image processing encompasses segmentation, surface reconstruction, correction of topology artifacts, and conformal mapping.
2. Morphological differences on voxel- and surface-based metrics in MDD.
3. Explore the differences in brain activity, structural and functional connection, fiber trajectory, and metabolite concentration between health and depressed patients by combining neuroimaging (fMRI, diffusion imaging, and MR spectroscopy). 
4. Classification and categorizing depressed patients based on multimodal imaging data.

Publications

• Schmidt, S. et al. Experience-dependent structural plasticity in the adult brain: How the learning brain grows. NeuroImage 225, 117502 (2021).
• Kurth, F., Gaser, C. & Luders, E. Development of sex differences in the human brain. Cognitive Neuroscience 0, 1–8 (2020).
• Kharabian Masouleh, S. et al. Influence of Processing Pipeline on Cortical Thickness Measurement. Cerebral Cortex 30, 5014–5027 (2020).
• Li, M. et al. Default mode network connectivity change corresponds to ketamine’s delayed glutamatergic effects. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 270, 207–216 (2020).
• Besteher, B. et al. Hippocampal Volume as a Putative Marker of Resilience or Compensation to Minor Depressive Symptoms in a Nonclinical Sample. Front. Psychiatry 10, (2019).
• Hedderich, D. M. et al. Aberrant gyrification contributes to the link between gestational age and adult IQ after premature birth. Brain 142, 1255–1269 (2019).
• Besteher, B., Gaser, C. & Nenadić, I. Machine-learning based brain age estimation in major depression showing no evidence of accelerated aging. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 290, 1–4 (2019).
• Colic, L. et al. Rostral Anterior Cingulate Glutamine/Glutamate Disbalance in Major Depressive Disorder Depends on Symptom Severity. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 4, 1049–1058 (2019).
• Li, M. et al. Temporal Dynamics of Antidepressant Ketamine Effects on Glutamine Cycling Follow Regional Fingerprints of AMPA and NMDA Receptor Densities. Neuropsychopharmacology 42, 1201–1209 (2017).
• Nenadic, I. et al. Cortical complexity in bipolar disorder applying a spherical harmonics approach. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 263, 44–47 (2017).