Neuroimaging
|MPhil/PhD
|Part Time, Full Time
- Number of academic staff: 11.
- Number of research students: 15.
Neuroimaging at the IoP is world-renowned. The Department is embedded in the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, a joint venture between the IoP and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM). The Centre provides, under one roof, an interdisciplinary research environment that combines the development of high resolution structural, functional and metabolic mapping techniques, with expertise in the definition, diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The CNS houses dedicated GE Signa HD.x MRI scanners (one 1.5T and two 3T, with direct access to an additional 3T), capable of performing functional, spectroscopic, anatomical and pathological mapping techniques. A 7T pre-clinical MRI system is based at the James Black centre on the Denmark Hill Campus.
Current research projects span neurodegeneration, epilepsy, stroke, pain, psychosis, affective disorders, developmental disorders and normal brain function, using a battery of neuroimaging techniques which include perfusion, diffusion, functional and structural imaging. Complementary research in imaging physics and analysis supports these applications.
Basic scientific research is also performed in models of neuropsychiatric disease, again using a diverse array of neuroimaging techniques, including pharmacological MRI and spectroscopy techniques. In conjunction with non-MR methods such as microscopy and autoradiography, this multifaceted approach enhances our understanding of the patho-physiological mechanisms underlying disease and informs the development of novel therapeutic interventions. In addition, improved understanding of the biological processes that underlie MR signal changes advances the crucial role of MR in non-invasive assessment of neuropsychiatric disease.
Our long-term objective is to translate our on-going pre-clinical developments in neuroimaging to the clinic, improving diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric and neurological diseases.
