实验室邀请了牛津大学FMRIB中心的孔亚卓博士做学术报告，欢迎感兴趣的老师和同学参加。以下为报告信息：
报告时间:12月22日(周二)上午9:30
报告地点:脑成像中心308会议室（大会议室）
报告人:孔亚卓博士 牛津大学FMRIB中心
报告题目:Imaging pain and neurodegeneration: from cortical to subcortical
报告摘要:Pain is a vital function of the nervous system in providing the body with a warning of potential or actual injury. Pain-associated brain regions are collectively known as the “pain matrix” including both cortical areas and subcortical areas (most importantly, brainstem and spinal cord). The spinal cord is the first relay site in the transmission of sensory information from the periphery to the brain. Descending systems originating in the brainstem exert top-down modulation of nociceptive input at the spinal level. However these are challenging regions for imaging. The main difficulties are the small anatomical size; magnetic susceptibility differences (i.e. bone/disc interfaces); physiological noise - primarily cardiac and respiratory related; motion and flow artifacts due to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulsation. In this talk, I will briefly discuss the concept of the pain mechanism and the current developments of brainstem and spinal fMRI, including some experiments we have run, such as laterality, attention and resting state networks in the spinal cord.
Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) is a very rare and devastating neurological condition, characterised by the sudden onset of severe demyelinating lesions and optic neuritis (ON). Neurogenic pain is well recognised in more than 80% of patients with transverse myelitis and there is no known therapy that produces satisfactory relief from NMO-associated pain. In Oxford, we aim to understand the disease pathology and neuropathic pain of NMO patients using multi-modal imaging techniques, such as structural, DTI, MTR, MR spectroscopy etc.  Recently we have successfully quantify glutamate from the periaqueductal gray (PAG) area of brainstem in NMO patients, a key region for descending pain modulation, and found that glutamate was significantly associated with patients’ degree of neuropathic pain. Meanwhile cord atrophy and diffusion results showed only significant association with disease pathology but not pain.
报告人简介:孔亚卓博士于中国科学技术大学获得工学学士学位，后于英国谢菲尔德大学获得博士学位，研究神经信号建模。目前他是牛津大学FMRIB中心的资深研究员，同 时也是牛津John Radcliffe医院神经医学科的荣誉非临床研究员。目前其研究涵盖多模态大脑和脊髓磁共振成像（结构，弥散，磁共振波普和功能性磁共振），应用于生理 噪声建模，功能连接网络分析，触觉和疼痛基础研究，以及神经退行性和脱髓鞘疾病，并已经在神经科学期刊如JCBFM, NeuroImage, PNAS上发表文章。