1. provide new tools for understanding of brain function and connectivity between brain structures, which will results in improved patient care,
2. enhance and accelerate the collaboration between institutions,
3. provide a platform for exchange of ideas and discussion of the research findings.
   

Examples of our research projects include:

• Design and test new pre-processing algorithms for removal of physiological noise, motion correction and resolution improvement with shifted measurements. As a result, software will be written in MATLAB (MathWorks, USA) and the algorithms will be tested on fMRI and perfusion studies. Evaluate and improve warping methods for between- and within-subject image registration.  At present, in order to compare the images acquired for each subject or to enable inter-subject comparison, warping procedures are used. We would like to evaluate those techniques using functional and anatomical MR image data, and to suggest improvements that will increase the accuracy of registration. A validation study will be conducted for each warping technique.
• Design and test novel techniques for generation of fMRI activation maps based on features derived from time-intensity curves in anatomically or functionally defined regions of interest (ROIs).  Based on the measures derived from the time-intensity curves, differences between groups of subjects will be highlighted allowing inference about group separation based on functional responses in chosen regions. Resulting measures can be used for higher level analysis, such as ANOVA, MANOVA etc. in order to show group effects. The new algorithms will be compared with existing ones and with the gold standard provided by metabolic mapping, which is an order of magnitude more sensitive.
• Design and evaluate new algorithms for fMRI image analysis based on anatomical and functional knowledge. Functional connectivity between clusters of activated voxels will be estimated by structural equation modeling.