DBP: Andy Saykin visit BWH and MIT April 21

PRESENT: Andy Saykin, Martha Shenton, Sonia Pujol, C-F Westin, Sandy Wells, Mark Dreusicke

Topics Discussed:

Slicer Workshop at Dartmouth, May 26th and 27th

• Sonia is organizing the material that will be covered at the workshop
• Dr. Saykin would like an introductory overview of Slicer’s capabilities
  • Emphasis should be placed on structural analysis (labelmap drawing, etc.)
  • Overview of DTI capabilities should be briefly covered as well
• Specific issues of concern include:
  • I/O file format, i.e., making sure current data at Dartmouth can be read (analyze format)
  • comparing BWH "pipeline" processing protocols with Dartmouth protocols (automatic segmentation, etc.)
• Note for Dartmouth researchers: Click here for instructions on getting started with Slicer

Implementation plans for fMRI tasks at the BWH site

• BWH should imitate the Dartmouth processing sequence
• Marek Kubicki will be in touch Dr. Saykin, with the goal of having the fMRI sequence up and running at BWH by the end of June
• Initial test cases should be scanned at BWH and sent to Dartmouth for analysis, to ensure software/acquisition compatibility
• Testing protocols will need to be developed (similar to test datasets used by BIRN and ADNI)
• More specific details will be discussed at a future meeting (see below)

DTI acquisition sequences

• Dartmouth is expecting to have a new scanner in the fall
• Both BWH and Dartmouth will be updating their acquisition protocols (using parallel imaging, etc.) to obtain higher resolution data
• Details on updating DTI procedures also will be discussed at a future meeting (see below)

Analytic strategies for integrating structural connectivity and functional connectivity

• Connectivity analyses will depend on close collaboration between sites to determine technical aspects of acquisition and coregistration of images
• For now, both sites should keep in mind their technical procedures when analyzing structural, DTI, and fMRI images, so that the "nuts and bolts" can be discussed later

Overlap and differences in clinical and neurocognitive measures being obtained

• BWH/Harvard and Dartmouth appear to be using the same clinical measures (DSM IV diagnosis, CVLT, etc.)
• Each center will look into the medication equivalents used

Outstanding IRB issues

• Marty will incorporate Dr. Saykin’s fMRI protocols into the IRB for U54

Potential recruitment from Dartmouth for Sandy Wells' PhD candidate student

• Eric Cosman is a PhD student working with Sandy Wells on multivariate autoregressive modeling
  • This modeling may be used to study connectivity differences in populations
• Dr. Saykin will follow up with Dr. Wells on the possibility of a collaboration, using patient/normal populations from Dartmouth

FUTURE MEETINGS

• Future meetings will be held to further discuss these issues
• The possibility of a morning/afternoon session was discussed, with a date TBA
• Issues to be discussed include:
  • fMRI processing at BWH
  • Incorporating LSDI scanning at Dartmouth
  • The future of DTI at both test centers (pulse sequence, acquisition, etc.)
• These meetings should include the following people:
  • Marek Kubicki
  • C-F Westin
  • Stephan Maier
  • Dave Tuck
  • Sandy Wells
  • Martha Shenton
  • Andy Saykin
  • Konstantinos Arfanakis