Investigating the oscillating brain

This project investigates changes of spontaneous hemodynamic oscillations during healthy aging and dementia. Recently, using optical imaging (NIRS), we were able to show that spontaneous oscillations specifically around 0.1 Hz decrease in the visual cortex of the agingbrain and in vascular dementia (cerebral microangiopathy). Interestingly, this kind of analysis in the frequency domain was much more sensitive in detecting changes than functional visual stimulation. Hence, we aim to establish our approach as a screening method to investigate vascular reagibility. In the future, we want to extend these approaches to optical topography, covering the whole outer brain & fMRI. Moreover, we will examine patients with Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s Disease and explore the predictive potential of this method to address changes from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease. Finally, we want to examine alterations in transgenic mouse models of healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease.