Neuroscience Ireland Conference 2025
Conference Speaker Profile
Prof Alexander Leemans
Utrecht University,
Netherlands
Talk Title
The Brain’s Hidden Highways: Exploring Connectivity with Diffusion MRI
Talk Abstract
Understanding how the brain functions requires knowledge of the architectural configuration of the underlying fiber pathways. Studying the organization of this complex network of brain connections remains challenging to date, partly because of the strong multi-scale nature of the brain’s circuitry and the numerous characteristics available for defining boundaries between brain regions.
With its unique ability to investigate tissue microstructure in vivo, diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the preferred approach for investigating the brain’s structural connectivity. Similar to cartographers creating land maps, diffusion MRI scientists develop brain fiber tractography methods to chart the intricate network of brain connections in vivo and non-invasively.
In this lecture, I will introduce the key concepts in diffusion MRI and fiber tractography and I will present some of the major challenges that we are currently facing.
Speaker Biography
Alexander Leemans is a physicist who received his Ph.D. in 2006 at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. From 2007 to 2009, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center (CUBRIC), Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom. In 2009, he joined the Image Sciences Institute (ISI), University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, where he currently holds a tenured faculty position as Associate Professor.
His current research interests include modeling, processing, visualizing and analyzing diffusion MRI data for investigating microstructural and architectural tissue organization. He heads the PROVIDI Lab and is the developer of ExploreDTI, which is a graphical toolbox for investigating diffusion MRI data.