The Liverpool BRAIN lab (Brain Research using Advanced Imaging in Neurology)

Research

Quantitative neuroimaging approaches are ­in-vivo and non-invasive methods to measure brain function and architecture on the macroscopic and mesoscopic scale. The increasing sophistication of MRI systems and image analysis techniques allow us to interrogate the human brain in a safe way on an increasingly detailed level.

Some of our current work and applications include:

Epilepsy

  • The identification of preoperative imaging biomarkers of postoperative seizure outcome in patients with refractory focal epilepsy.
  • The development and application of network imaging approaches to identify novel prognostic markers of anti-epileptic drug treatment outcome in newly diagnosed epilepsy.
  • The use of quantitative neuroimaging to understand cognitive dysfunction in focal epilepsy.
  • The prediction of epilepsy from a first seizure using MRI, electrophysiological and biological approaches.
  • The development of MRI analysis tools for the automated detection of epileptogenic lesions causing seizures.
  • The application of novel MRI techniques to differentiate intra-axonal and extra-axonal changes in epilepsy.
  • Understanding brain structural and functional connectivity alterations in genetic generalised epilepsy.

Movement disorders

  • The identification of architectural pathways affected in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease
  • Predicting deep brain stimulation treatment outcomes in movement disorders
  • Neuroimaging-genomic studies in Parkinson’s disease
  • Understanding of the relationships between brain alterations, inter-individual symptomatology and cognitive decline in movement disorders
  • Understanding the mechanisms and predicting treatment outcomes in cervical dystonia.

Neurodegeneration

  • Imaging biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease
  • Understanding central and peripheral neurodegeneration in prediabetes and early Type 2 diabetes
  • Understanding how brain injury can lead to dementia.

Infectious diseases

  • Neuroimaging studies in patients with post-acute COVID-19
  • Determining the relationship between neuropsychological impairment and brain damage in encephalitis
  • The development of quantitative neuroimaging markers of drug treatment outcome in herpes simplex encephalitis and autoimmune encephalitis
  • Quantitative neuroimaging in Neurocysticercosis and the identification of clinical and imaging factors associated with the presentation of intractable seizures.

Pain

  • Neuroimaging studies in patients with chronic post-stroke pain
  • Using lesion mapping, connectomics and fMRI to predict the development of pain following a stroke
  • Predicting transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment outcomes in post-stroke pain
  • Understanding the role of the primary somatosensory cortex in normal and pathological pain.

Anatomical basis of language lateralisation

  • Studying the relationship between cerebral structural asymmetry and language lateralisation in healthy people
  • Identifying structural and functional brain connectivity markers of language lateralisation
  • Determining the effects of reorganised language and cognitive functioning in neurological disorders.

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