Quantification of Gyrification of the Brain

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Robert Dahnke
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2019 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 417649423

The growing intellectual abilities in individual and evolutional development of the mammal brain is caused by a disproportionately increase of cortical surface area by folding (gyrification). Brain folding mainly develops in utero and then remains almost constant, so that even the structural organization of the full-grown folding pattern can improve our understanding of developmental origins of neurological and mental disorders. This project focuses developing novel, generalized methods for assessing brain folding by structural magnetic resonance imaging. The new measures estimate the local increase of cortical surface area caused by the neuro-developemental folding process. A validation scheme with (modified) real datasets will evaluate the measures against existing ones under simulated conditions and in context of brain-size, healthy aging, and sex differences in humans. In addition, highly specialized studies will be carried out in collaboration with leading experts in the field of schizophrenia and non-human primate research. These will not only shed light on the unresolved mechanisms underlying brain folding, but will also facilitate individual characterization and analysis of the brain in a clinical context. Both, the novel measures as well as the folding evaluation scheme will be integrated in the widely used and freely applicable Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT), which has been co-developed by the applicant and is embedded in the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) software package.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Denmark
• Host: Professor Dr. Simon Fristed Eskildsen