UMBC CSEE Seminar Series
Dynamic Causal Modelling of Neuroimaging (hemodynamic) Time Series and Current Applications in Psychiatric Research
Eugenia Radulescu
The Lieber Institute for Brain Development
1-2pm Friday, 14 April 2017, ITE 231
Abnormal neural processing due to interregional dysconnectivity at brain systems level is widely accepted as a generic mechanism in the etiopathogeny of major psychiatric disorders (i.e., schizophrenia and autism). Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) is a modern framework for creating, estimating and comparing generative models of hemodynamic time series, useful for investigating the effective connectivity of neuronal populations. This presentation will discuss the role of DCM in mapping the “ineffective” connectivity between brain regions in mental disorders and it will be structured in three parts: a. An introduction to the theoretical background of DCM applied to task-dependent hemodynamic response during functional MRI; b. Examples of clinical applications of DCM in schizophrenia and autism; c. Challenges and limitations of DCM in psychiatric research, followed by a general question: how can collaborate psychiatrists, computer scientists and engineers in improving and better adapting mathematical models for understanding the biological disturbances in psychiatric conditions.
Eugenia Radulescu, MD, PhD joined the Lieber Institute in 2013, as a Research Fellow in Dr. Weinberger’s group. She earned her MD and PhD at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “C. Davila” Bucharest, Romania and practiced as a psychiatrist for thirteen years before switching to a career in psychiatric research. In 2003-2009 she was a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Weinberger’s lab, Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, NIMH/ NIH. There Eugenia acquired expertise in neuroimaging methods- structural and functional MRI. Together with the colleagues from the Neuroimaging Core, she used these methods to investigate the effects of schizophrenia risk genetic variants on well characterized imaging intermediate phenotypes. In 2010-2014 Eugenia was a visiting fellow at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and Sackler Center for Consciousness Science in United Kingdom, where she continued to use MRI for studying brain structural and functional abnormalities associated with neurodevelopmental disorders (i.e. schizophrenia and autism). In the Division of Clinical Sciences at Lieber Institute, she pursues her long standing interest in applying complex fMRI analytical methods to test genetic epistasis effects on brain networks relevant as novel drug targets in neuro-developmental disorders.
Organizer & Host: Tulay Adali
About the CSEE Seminar Series: The UMBC Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering presents technical talks on current significant research projects of broad interest to the Department and the research community. Each talk is free and open to the public. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future talks.