My research focuses on functional connectivity: the interactions between different parts of the brain to perform cognitive tasks. Measuring connectivity from functional MRI data holds promise as a non-invasive approach to understanding the function of the brain and how it changes in psychiatric disorders. Studies of connectivity to date have implicated connectivity changes in schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and autism, for example. However, the variety of methods used disguises the broader implications of these studies in a haze of technical details and makes comparing different studies quite difficult. One of my research goals is to clarify the relationships between the most common connectivity measures, providing a basis for synthesizing the results of past studies and indicating which techniques will be most effective for particular research questions.
This page was last updated in August, 2006 by BP Rogers.