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Brain connectivity metrology for personalised neuroimaging in health and disease

Project description

Measuring the wiring architecture of the human brain and its individual variability

The brain network remains elusive, but a key step towards untangling its complexity is mapping its connections, the wiring that determines what the brain can and cannot compute. The set of brain connections is unique for every person and connectional abnormalities are reflected in mental illness. Yet, there are fundamental limitations in mapping connections for the individual. The EU-funded Neuro-Metrology project is combining computational and experimental research to develop advanced methods, based on magnetic resonance imaging, for robust, reproducible and interpretable measurements of brain connections. Researchers envision enabling the mapping of personalised signatures of brain architecture and linking connection patterns to behavioural and psychiatric traits.

Objective

A key step towards untangling the complexity of the human brain is to understand how functionally specialised subunits are interconnected in the brain’s network to influence each other and produce experiences and behaviour. Magnetic resonance imaging uniquely allows to explore this systems-level view of neural connections and to probe brain organisation.
Despite great promise, conventional approaches have experienced difficulties in delivering robust and tangible applications, particularly for the individual, either for neuroscience or clinical practice. The connectome, the comprehensive map of brain connections, is unique in every person; yet there are fundamental limitations in its personalised mapping. Lack of standardised, accurate measures of brain connections and absence of objective references introduce errors and reduce interpretability and reproducibility.
I will develop a novel algorithmic platform for brain connectivity mapping, which will establish measurement principles to allow, for the first time, quantitative and objective characterisation of the brain connectome and its individual variability. Through a mixture of highly-interdisciplinary computational and experimental research, I propose to tackle unmet challenges and shift the paradigm from ad-hoc image processing pipelines to a comprehensive framework governed by principles of metrology. I will develop platforms that a) integrate cross-modal information for accurate standardised measurements of brain connections and b) link these measurements to reference standards, reflecting the population, as well as the individual.
I will subsequently tackle important representative questions that rely on the ability to capture personalised signatures of the brain architecture: in basic neuroscience, the ability to predict the neural connectivity that underpins behavioural traits; in clinical neuroscience, the ability to use normative models of connections to improve subject-specific diagnosis in depression.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG

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Host institution

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 995 269,00
Address
University Park
NG7 2RD Nottingham
United Kingdom

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Region
East Midlands (England) Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Nottingham
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 995 269,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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