The Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre is a cross-disciplinary centre drawing together a dynamic range of researchers from the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and the Schools of Psychology, Life Sciences, and Informatics at the University of Sussex. Outlined below are our key research areas and associated faculty.
MRI Technique Development
Quantitative MRI uses the scanner as a measurement tool to identify subtle in vivo changes that are often invisible to conventional MRI approaches. Many quantities that we would like to measure are not readily available on the scanner and need to be developed, optimized and tested for accuracy and reproducibility using healthy human volunteers and phantoms (test objects). A substantial number of the projects at CISC now use quantitative MRI techniques that have been optimized at CISC, such as quantitative magnetization transfer, diffusion tensor imaging, T1 mapping and arterial spin labelling.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become one of the most common methods of imaging the brain. This is mainly due to the exquisite contrast it provides without the use of radiation between different tissue compartments, such as white and grey matter, as well as between healthy and pathological tissue. Another characteristic of MRI is the possibility of manipulating nuclear spins in order to produce a large number of different image contrasts. This property not only allows the collection of several different qualitative images of the brain, but also constitutes the basis for quantitative MRI. Typically, quantitative MRI techniques fit a model of the dependence of the MR signal on a physical process to a number of MRI measurements obtained at different settings of the acquisition pulse sequence, which is sensitized to the physical process of interest. Different quantitative MRI parameters can provide information about different characteristics of tissue, and, combined with clinical variables, may improve our understanding of some pathological conditions.
Prof Mara Cercignani is interested in all aspects of quantitative MRI, from modeling of signal to sequence design and image processing, with the specific aim of translating physics development into clinical applications. Her research has focused mainly on diffusion MRI, magnetization transfer, and other emerging methods.
Prof Cercignani's research profile
Dr Nick Dowell is working in the field of quantitative MRI, which uses the scanner as a measurement tool to identify subtle in vivo changes that are often invisible to conventional MRI approaches. Many quantities that we would like to measure are not readily available on the scanner and need to be developed, optimized and tested for accuracy and reproducibility using healthy human volunteers and phantoms (test objects). A substantial number of the projects at CISC now use quantitative MRI techniques that have been optimized at CISC, such as quantitative magnetization transfer, diffusion tensor imaging, T1 mapping and arterial spin labelling. Nick has also developed a suite of image analysis computer programs written in C and the Matlab programming environment to help researchers analyze their quantitative MRI data.
Dr Dowell's research profile
BSMS Neuroscience & Psychiatry
BSMS Neuroscience is strongly represented at the Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre and is a key research theme within the Medical School, spanning developmental, peripheral and central aspects of neural function using a range of methodological approaches. Neuroscience is also integrated within the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes within the Medical School and across the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. The department of Psychiatry encompasses full-time academics, honorary lecturers and senior lecturers engaged in undergraduate and postgraduate neuroscience research.
Professor Critchley's long term interest is in the control of emotional and motivational behaviour. He now focuses on examining psychophysiological mechanisms underlying symptom expression in physical and psychological disorders; i.e. how brain and body interact to influence subjective experience, behaviour and physical health. Techniques which Professor Critchley typically uses combine functional brain imaging with autonomic monitoring and clinical studies of relevant patients. This work extends into behavioural medicine and has been supported by the Wellcome Trust.
Prof Critchley's research profile
Work in the laboratory focuses on understanding how infection or inflammation in the body interacts with the brain to produce changes in emotion, cognition, behaviour and social functioning known as 'sickness behaviours'. Curiously, without necessarily realising it, we are all familiar with sickness behaviours as these are the symptoms of fatigue, lowering of mood, apathy and difficulty remembering or concentrating that we all experience when we develop the flu or any other infection. Fortunately, for most of us these symptoms are usually short lived and relatively mild. However, when the immune system is activated for long periods such as in people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis they can become extremely debilitating or even life-threatening. Further, immune influences on the brain are also implicated in the cause of common illnesses like depression, chronic fatigue and Alzheimer disease. Our hope is that identification of the neural basis of sickness will motivate the development of novel therapies targeting these common and disabling symptoms. Most studies in the lab use combinations of brain imaging (fMRI, FDG-PET, EEG, polysomnography), experimental modulation of inflammation, carefully designed cognitive tasks and diverse measures of peripheral immune status.
Dr Harrison's research profile
Dr Chan's research interests lie in the field of diagnosis of early dementia and the functions of the human hippocampus and its application to the clinical domain. His research is currently looking at the identification of biomarkers for preclinical Alzheimer's disease; the role of functional MRI in the diagnosis of early dementia; the role of the hippocampus in retrograde memory and cognitive function in CNS inflammatory disorders.
Dr Chan's research profile
Natasha Sigala is a Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at BSMS. She is particularly interested in the neural mechanisms that support visual categorization, attention and memory, and the ways neuronal representations change in response to learning and behavioural context. Her current projects using fMRI and electrophysiology include a McDonnell-Pew funded project investigating a network of Frontoparietal activations associated with many cognitive demands, in collaboration with John Duncan in Cambridge and Nikos Logothetis in Tuebingen. Other current research interests include the neuronal mechanisms of working memory, the ability to hold and manipulate information in our mind for a short period of time. Working memory is crucial in children's ability to learn and for adults to successfully perform every day activities, like following directions or holding a telephone number in mind for a short time.
Dr Sigala's research profile
Dr Nick Medford worked in general medicine and neurology before training in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry. Clinically, he is interested in the interface between neurology and psychiatry. His research interests are in using functional MRI and other techniques to explore the neural basis of emotional experience in both healthy and clinical populations. He has a particular interest in depersonalisation and other dissociative phenomena, and believes that neuroscientific investigation of mental states is best combined with an interest in phenomenology and philosophy of mind.
Dr Medford's research profile
School of Psychology, University of Sussex
The School of Psychology is engaged in research across a broad range of the discipline and provides a high quality research environment for staff and for research students. Psychology at Sussex achieved an excellent result in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and was ranked 12th equal amongst the 76 submissions. 60% of our research was recognised as world leading or internationally excellent, and 95% was internationally recognised or better. Overall the University of Sussex had over 90% of its research rated as internationally recognised or better, and was ranked overall in the top 30 in the UK. The School is organised into four research groups which hold regular seminars and serve as a focus for faculty and research students.
Professor Dora Duka is part of the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience research group at the University of Sussex. Her research interests are: alcohol and nicotine addiction; human studies of conditioning, implications for alcohol and nicotine effects; alcohol craving in humans; adaptive mechanisms; emotional and cognitive factors. She is also interested in the psychopharmacology of cognition, particularly with regard to effects of alcohol and related drugs. Her current imaging projects include work on the consequences of long term alcohol abuse and repeated experience of detoxification on cognitive and emotional function. With the support of a Medical Research Council Programme grant in collaboration with Professor Dai Stephens (Sussex), Professor Mary Phillips (Pittsburgh) and Professor Steve Williams (Institute of Psychiatry) she is investigating how multiple withdrawal experience leads to reduction of grey matter volume in sub-regions of prefrontal cortex that results in inflexible persistence in reward seeking, and which may contribute to inability to control further alcohol abuse. In collaboration with Professor Hugo Critchley, and with further MRC support, she uses fMRI to study the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of acute alcohol on responsiveness to events that trigger further drinking.
Prof Duka's profile
Professor Jennifer Rusted is part of the Behavioral and Clinical Neuroscience research group at the University of Sussex. She is interested in the biological bases and pharmacology of human memory; prospective and action-based memory in ageing and dementia; drug models of dementia; behavioural and drug interventions for people with dementia. Her current work at CISC explores the neural signatures associated with the presence of the APOE e4 genotype in younger, healthy, including functional, structural and quantitative MRI measures, and is funded by the BBSRC.
Prof Rusted's profile
Dr Jamie Ward is a Reader in the School of Psychology. His current projects using fMRI include an ESRC-funded project investigating neural activity within the somatosensory system from the observation of touch, exploring possible links to empathy, and multi-sensory processing of gesture (both with Dr Henning Holle). Dr Ward is particularly well known for his research on synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is a developmental condition in which people experience the ordinary world in extraordinary ways: for instance, words may have tastes, music may be coloured, and numbers may glide through space. By studying synaesthesia we can understand how the brain creates conscious experiences (normal and illusory), and how differences in perception may affect, say, thinking and memory. Other current research interests include phantom limb experiences following amputation and developing sensory substitution technology to enable the blind to 'see' using their intact senses of hearing and touch. His research uses the methods of cognitive neuroscience, and his textbook 'The Student's Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience' is used throughout the world. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal, 'Cognitive Neuroscience'.
Dr Ward's profile
Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science
The Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science (SCCS) is a joint venture between the Schools of Informatics and Psychology at the University of Sussex, and the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Its remit is to unravel the complex neural networks underpinning conscious experience, in health and in disease.
Researchers from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and psychiatry have been brought together in the Sackler Centre, where they study the conscious state using a unique combination of theory, clinical investigations and hard science. The Centre is the result of a substantial grant by the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation, which funds pioneering research into the brain. The Sackler Foundations support the advancement of education of the public in the UK and elsewhere in the fields of art, science and medical research. The Sussex Centre is one of only five in the world funded by the Foundation, alongside Sackler research centres at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow in the UK and Columbia and Cornell in the USA. The Sackler Centre scientists use neuroimaging, mathematics and computer science to cast fresh light on questions relating to consciousness.
Dr Anil Seth and Professor Hugo Critchley, are Co-directors of the Centre and principal researchers at Sussex and the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. They say:
"Our joint aim is to characterise the biological underpinnings of consciousness in its varied expressions in a way that ultimately has practical clinical relevance. The Centre will integrate theoretical models of consciousness with both real-world clinical observations from psychiatry, and experimental observations from psychology, neuroimaging and computer simulations to address what is undoubtedly one of the 'big questions' for 21st-century biological science. The generous and inspirational support from the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation will enable us to employ leading experts from around the world to help progress new research in the field."
Dr Scott is employed as a research fellow funded under a project grant from the ESRC. His research employs behavioural, physiological and brain imaging techniques to examine the extent to which conscious perception is necessary for implicit learning, and the process by which conscious knowledge emerges from initially unconscious behavioural biases. In addition to theoretical research on consciousness Dr Scott is also engaged in work attempting to apply the resulting insights to practical challenges arising from disorders of consciousness. These projects include the development of a method for detecting conscious awareness that is neither reliant on physical movement or language comprehension.
Dr Bor's research centres on the functional role of so called "executive" brain regions, including the lateral and medial prefrontal cortices, and posterior parietal cortex. He has carried out a number of studies, mainly using fMRI, to examine the role of these regions in strategic processing, working memory and IQ-related tasks. He is particularly interested in relating genetic information to phenotypic markers in the form of fMRI activity and behaviour, with one ongoing study in this area. He has also applied imaging techniques to investigate various patient groups. He has used structural MRI to link location of prefrontal lesion with working memory deficit and has examined residual functional connectivity in prefrontal lesion patients using fMRI. He has also published imaging papers on Asperger Syndrome and prodigies. Having joined the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at its inception, he is now particularly interested in applying fMRI and related to techniques to examine consciousness. For instance, he is currently planning a study to investigate the relationship between prefrontal parietal network activity, consciousness and structured knowledge acquisition. He is also currently planning or collaborating on studies involving implicit learning and synaesthesia.
