Seminar of Physics of the Living State

(The Applied Physics Scientific Section)


2011 Academic Year

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Time: 15.30

Oppenheimer Meeting Room, Second Floor, Leonardo Building



Computational Neuroanatomy:
Lights and Shadows (*)

 
Rafael Rodriguez Rojas
International Centre for Neurological Restoration, Havana, Cuba



(*) Summary. In recent years, whole-brain objective techniques, known as computational neuro-anatomy (CNA) methods, have become popular tools to characterize brain differences in vivo using structural brain images. The process usually involves non-linear registration, spatial segmentation and normalization and multivariate statistical analysis. The present talk provides a brief description of CNA and then focuses on some applications in healthy and diseased subjects. Application of CNA in clinical environment is handicapped by methodological concerns. It is the objective of this seminar to summarize a recent debate regarding these issues for practical clinical applications.


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(**) Biodata: Rafael Rodriguez Rojas, MSc, is a Junior Associate of the ICTP  in the program of Physics of the Living State for neurophysics for which he is completing his doctoral thesis. He is an Assistant Researcher in the Brain Images Processing Group at the International Centre for Neurological Restoration. 

    He is also Associate Professor of Physics in the Polytechnic High Institute Jose A. Echeverria, Havana, Cuba. Among the distinctions he has received we should mention:  the Annual Prize of National Academy of Sciences, Cuba (2008), the Annual Prize of Health, Cuba (2001 and 2007), the Biannual Prize of Cuban Society on Biomedical Engineering (2003 and 2005) and, especially, the National Prize for Young Scientists, Cuba (2000).
 

    His fields of expertise are medical-image processing and analysis, brain computational models, and computer-aided diagnosis and surgery. He is the author of over 30 publications and conference presentations.
 His research group has recently received the "International Academy Award for Child Brain Development" granted by the International Academy for Child Brain Developmentfounded in the USA in 1984.