"Neurological disorders constitute a major health as well as societal burden across the globe. The problem is further aggravated by the growth of geriatric population. Although the etiology of these disorders is fairly broad, a consistent observation is the prevalence of atypical connectivity changes occurring across brain regions, particularly if the diseases processes target synapses. Estimating this connectivity using functional neuroimaging continues to be one the most challenging methodological problems in the field of computational neuroscience. Brain connectivity, particularly in clinically oriented research applications of functional MRI (fMRI), is primarily studied through correlation analyses which while being computationally and conceptually simpler, tend to ignore the non-linear, directional and multivariate characteristics of the brain. The goal of this thesis is to tackle the limitations of existing methods for studying functional connectivity through novel techniques. The specific focus is to enhance the use of advanced connectivity beyond tautological deductions on brain organization to demonstration of their applicability in clinical scenarios. This is accomplished through (1) development and extensive validation of techniques based on dynamic systems modeling and Granger causality, (2) adaptation of graph theoretic analysis and network based techniques for appropriate statistical inference. The application of these methods is demonstrated on datasets from two neurologic diseases (a) HIV associated neurocognitive disorders, and (b) Autism spectrum disease. The results obtained lend credence to the utility of improved connectivity computation methods for detection of neurologic diseases and also the localization of its effects in the brain. These methods could be of significant interest for the development of non-invasive functional MRI derived biomarkers, which could be pertinent for various clinical applications, including early detection, monitoring progression or detecting response to therapy."--Pages xv-xvi.

There has been increasing interests in exploring biomarkers from brain images, aiming to have a better understanding and a more effective diagnosis of brain disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Alzheimer’s disease and so on. Therefore, it is important to identify disease-specific changes for distinguishing healthy controls and patients with brain disorders as well as for differentiating patients with different disorders showing similar clinical symptoms. Biomarkers can be identified from different types of brain Imaging techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), structural MRI, positron emission tomography (PET), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) by using statistical analysis methods. Furthermore, based on measures from brain imaging techniques, machine learning techniques can help to classify or predict disease for individual subjects. In fact, fusion of features from multiple modalities may benefit the understanding of disease mechanism and improve the classification performance. This Research Topic further explores the functional or structural alterations in brain disorders.

This volume looks at the latest advancements in imaging neuroscience methods using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to study the healthy and diseased brain. The chapters in this book are organized into five parts. Parts One and Two cover an introduction to this field and the latest use of molecular models. Part Three explores neurophysiological methods for assessment, such as quantitative EEG and event-related potentials. Part Four discusses the advances and innovations made in computational anatomy, and Part Five addresses the challenges faced by researchers prior to the computational neuroscience to find wider translational applications in the field of psychiatry and mental health. In the Neuromethods series style, chapters include the kind of detail and key advice from the specialists needed to get successful results in your laboratory. Cutting-edge and comprehensive, Computational Neuroscience is a valuable tool for researchers in the psychiatry and mental health fields who want to learn more about ways to incorporate computational approaches into utility and validity of clinical methods.

This volume addresses one of the Holy Grails in Psychiatry, namely the evidence for and potential to adopt ‘Biomarkers’ for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment responses in mental health conditions. It meshes together state of the art research from international renowned pre-clinical and clinical scientists to illustrate how the fields of anxiety disorders, depression, psychotic disorders, and autism spectrum disorder have advanced in recent years.

Statistical Techniques for Neuroscientists introduces new and useful methods for data analysis involving simultaneous recording of neuron or large cluster (brain region) neuron activity. The statistical estimation and tests of hypotheses are based on the likelihood principle derived from stationary point processes and time series. Algorithms and software development are given in each chapter to reproduce the computer simulated results described therein. The book examines current statistical methods for solving emerging problems in neuroscience. These methods have been applied to data involving multichannel neural spike train, spike sorting, blind source separation, functional and effective neural connectivity, spatiotemporal modeling, and multimodal neuroimaging techniques. The author provides an overview of various methods being applied to specific research areas of neuroscience, emphasizing statistical principles and their software. The book includes examples and experimental data so that readers can understand the principles and master the methods. The first part of the book deals with the traditional multivariate time series analysis applied to the context of multichannel spike trains and fMRI using respectively the probability structures or likelihood associated with time-to-fire and discrete Fourier transforms (DFT) of point processes. The second part introduces a relatively new form of statistical spatiotemporal modeling for fMRI and EEG data analysis. In addition to neural scientists and statisticians, anyone wishing to employ intense computing methods to extract important features and information directly from data rather than relying heavily on models built on leading cases such as linear regression or Gaussian processes will find this book extremely helpful.

This comprehensive book explains the importance of imaging techniques in exploring and understanding the role of brain abnormalities in schizophrenia. The findings obtained using individual imaging modalities and their biological interpretation are reviewed in detail, and updates are provided on methodology, testable hypotheses, limitations, and new directions for research. The coverage also includes important recent applications of neuroimaging to schizophrenia, for example in relation to non-pharmacological interventions, brain development, genetics, and prediction of treatment response and outcome. Written by world renowned experts in the field, the book will be invaluable to all who wish to learn about the newest and most important developments in neuroimaging research in schizophrenia, how these developments relate to the last 30 years of research, and how they can be leveraged to bring us closer to a cure for this devastating disorder. Neuroimaging in Schizophrenia will assist clinicians in navigating what is an extremely complex field and will be a source of insight and stimulation for researchers.

The three-volume set LNCS 8673, 8674, and 8675 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2014, held in Boston, MA, USA, in September 2014. Based on rigorous peer reviews, the program committee carefully selected 253 revised papers from 862 submissions for presentation in three volumes. The 53 papers included in the third volume have been organized in the following topical sections: shape and population analysis; brain; diffusion MRI; and machine learning.