There are many active research projects accessing and applying shared ADNI data. Use the search above to find specific research focuses on the active ADNI investigations. This information is requested annually as a requirement for data access.
| Principal Investigator | |
| Principal Investigator's Name: | Stephan Krohn |
| Institution: | Freie Universitaet Berlin |
| Department: | Neurology |
| Country: | |
| Proposed Analysis: | During a recent stay abroad at the University of Jaén, Spain, a collaboration between our group for Computational Neuroscience and the Systems Biology Unit led by Prof. Francisco J. Esteban has emerged. I have a background in clinical radiology, neurophysiology and computational neuroscience. Prof. Esteban's team has acquired extensive expertise in the (2D- and 3D-) fractal analysis of both healthy and diseases brains, showing that the fractal dimension as calculated from segmented MR images can detect pathological changes in infants with intrauterine growth restriction and Multiple Sclerosis patients at an early stage and oftentimes better than voxel-based morphometry. The mathematical concept of fractality is an exciting new analysis approach in the neurosciences and has been fruitfully applied to both cellular and large-scale brain data and to a wide array of diseases (see review below). We would thus like to gain access to ADNI's impressive database in order carry out an analysis as follows: - compute and compare the fractal dimensions for controls, MCI, and AD patients in White-Matter, Grey-Matter, and skeletized images from structural MR data, using an already established analysis pipeline - examine if the fractal dimension (global or local) can be used as a predictor of disease progression - test if the fractal dimension is correlated to demographics (specifically age and sex), cognitive performance as measured by clinical test scores, or genetic factors (esp. ApoE4 status) Further refinements and extensions of the proposed analysis are currently discussed, but these are the main analyis steps we would like to conduct. We would be very happy to be granted access to the ADNI database. Do not hesitate to contact me (or FJ Esteban at festeban@ujaen.es) for any further information. Thank you for your time. Best regards, Stephan Krohn PS: Some relevant publications: Di Ieva, A., Esteban, F. J., Grizzi, F., Klonowski, W., & Martín-Landrove, M. (2015). Fractals in the Neurosciences, part II clinical applications and future perspectives. The Neuroscientist, 21(1), 30-43. UJA-3DFD: A program to compute the 3D fractal dimension from MRI data. Ruiz de Miras J, Navas J, Villoslada P, Esteban FJ. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2011; 104:452-60. Fractal-dimension analysis detects cerebral changes in preterm infants with and without intrauterine growth restriction. Esteban FJ, Padilla N, Sanz-Cortés M, de Miras JR, Bargalló N, Villoslada P, Gratacós E. Neuroimage. 2010; 53:1225-32 Fractal dimension analysis of grey matter in multiple sclerosis. Esteban FJ, Sepulcre J, de Miras JR, Navas J, de Mendizábal NV, Goñi J, Quesada JM, Bejarano B, Villoslada P. J Neurol Sci. 2009; 282:67-71 |
| Additional Investigators |
