Our aim is to substantially deepen our understanding of how different brain systems (electrical, chemical, structural, metabolic) interact with each other and how differences in these interactions impact on brain function and behaviour.

A range of neuroimaging techniques has been developed to probe different systems. We apply these routinely but do not fully understand what they measure, and whether they tell us the full story about health and/or disease.

We also do not know how signals from different techniques link with each other. In this programme, we are studying healthy people and people where we already know there are differences in coupling, including people with epilepsy and psychosis. We are also studying coupling before and after perturbing the brain, through brain training, magnetic stimulation or pharamacological manipulation.

Our vision is to deliver a step change in understanding the human brain, by creating an imaging programme that uniquely combines the very best neuroimaging expertise, equipment and techniques.

We want to answer the fundamental question of how continuous interactions of electrical, chemical, vascular and metabolic processes result in the multi-scale network activity that underpins inter-individual differences in cognition, and key behavioural/functional brain changes in disease.

This integrated characterisation of brain coupling over multiple domains will transform our understanding of the working brain and guide approaches aimed at remedial action when normal coupling is disturbed.

Key goals

A team of 11 methodological and two clinical Fellows, each focused on a specific aspect of coupling, but applied within a systematic framework of integration, will allow us to achieve our key goals, which are to:

Funding

This project was made possible by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award. Find out more about our funders.

Research team

Co-applicants on the Award

Publications acknowledging the Award

Preprints acknowledging the Award

Accepted abstracts