BME Seminar: The Potential of Imaging Physiological Brain Pulsations

Vesa Kiviniemi, Adjunct Professor of Diagnostic Radiology, Oulu University Hospital, will be the speaker.

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Abstract:

Recently physiological brain pulsations have gained increasing attention due to the discovery of the glymphatic brain clearance mechanism. Simultaneously the temporal resolution of fMRI scanning technology has increased and enabled more accurate detection these in addition to functional connectivity. My OFNI team (www.oulu.fi/ofni) has developed a multimodal scanning environment, which combines magnetic resonance encephalography (MREG), EGI 256 electrode EEG, fNIRS and NIBP measurements. In 2014 we identified three forms of physiological brain pulsations as glymphatic driving mechanisms in humans. This was also noted by the New Scientist How waste pulses through your brain. More recently we discovered marked alterations in these pulsations in epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and brain lymphomas, through which I intend to shed light on my talk for the potential of imaging physiological brain pulsations.

Bio:

I am a Professor of Functional Neuroimaiging at the University of Oulu, Finland. Prior to this, I was the Docent of Oulu University and a Clinical Teacher/lecturer In Oulu University Hospital and Head of the Radiology Department, Oulaskangas Röntgen, Hospital of Oulaskangas in Northern Finland.

I was the first European to discover spontaneous brain activity fluctuations by functional Magnetic Resonance Image (fMRI) independently in 1997 and used it to measure brain connectivity. I am also the first person to introduce the independent component analysis (ICA) for extracting functionally independent networks in resting state brains. I did research in MCW, US during 1999-2001 with resting state pioneer Biswal. I have witnessed the rapid development of neuroimaging technique, particularly its application in brain connectivity research, during the past 20 years.

Currently I am focusing on multimodal and ultrafast neuroimaging of brain pulsations that drive metabolite and water convection in the brain glymphatic system in close collaboration with pioneers like Nedergaard, Hynynen and Alitalo.