Microstructure and Plasticity

Welcome! This is the homepage of the Microstructure and Plasticity (MaP) group at the Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) and is headed by Dr Tim B. Dyrby.

Our Objectives

The group aims for a basic-science understanding of brain structure and its plasticity on several levels, ranging from isolated tissue compartments (i.e. microstructure as cellular spaces, neuron, cell membranes) to visualisation and statistical analysis of whole brain connectivity networks, and its impact on normal and disrupted brain function.

Our research is subsequently applied to clinical, pre-clinical and cognitive research projects as well as to clinical settings. To fulfill this aim, expert knowledge from a broad range of research areas is essential and is obtained through collaboration with colleagues within the DRCMR, external members, as well as international collaboration with other groups working on diffusion MRI, scientific computing and neuroanatomy.

Download MaP datasets

We always seek to share our unique MRI data sets mostly being high-qualtiy ex vivo ex vivo so that other researchers can reproduce our results or foster new ideas. Go to our download site

MaP is closely linked to several other research groups at DRCMR

Ageing and Dementia
Multiple Sclerosis
Traumatic Brain Injury
Brain Maturation
Preclinical
Ultra-High Field MR
Clinical (research, data processing pipelines, scanning and diagnosis service for patients)

Overall research areas

Understanding of water and metabolic diffusion in individual isolated tissue compartments such as cellular spaces, neurons, cell membranes (pre-clinical and clinical)
Active Imaging of tissue microstructure – Verification and validation of new optimised diffusion MRI sequence designs to probe new and specific tissue microstructures (clinical, pre-clinical)
Imaging pipelines for high-quality and high-resolution (ex vivo and in vivo) diffusion MRI for studying tissue microstructure, method development and validation (pre-clinical)
Tractography and mapping of brain connectivity – improve and extend existing approaches and relate to functional data (fMRI, transcranial magnetic stimulation).
Brain plasticity including diseases such as multiple-sclerosis and traumatic brain injury (clinical and pre-clinical), brain maturation (pre-clinical), aging (clinical), and sensory deprivation such as blindness and deafness (clinical).

Associated Publications

Large I, Bridge H, Ahmed B, Clare S, Kolasinski J, Lam WW, Miller KL, Dyrby TB, Parker AJ, Smith JET, Daubney G, Sallet J Bell AH, Krug K, Individual differences in the alignment of structural and functional markers of the V5/MT complex in primates, Cerebral Cortex, 2016, Accepted

Donahue C, Sotiropoulos S, Jbabdi S, Hernandez-Fernandez M, Beherens T, Dyrby TB, Kennedy H, Knoblauch K, Coalson T, Glasser M, Van Essen D, Using Diffusion Tractography to Predict Cortical Connection Strength and Distance: A Quantitative Comparison with Tracers in the Monkey, Journal Neuroscience, 2016, 36(25): 6758-6770

Innocenti GM, Dyrby TB, Winther Andersen K, Rouillier EM, Caminiti R, The crossed projection to the striatum in two species of monkey and in humans: Behavioral and evolutionary significance, Cerebral Cortex, 2016, doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhw161

Reislev NL, Dyrby TB, Siebner HR, Kupers R, Simultaneous assessment of white matter changes in microstructure and connectedness in the blind brain, Neural Plasticity, Article ID 795865, 2015

Ratzer R, Iversen P, Börnsen L, Dyrby TB, Christensen JR, Ammitzbøll C, Madsen CG, Garde E, Andersen B, Hyldstrup L, Sørensen PS, Siebner HR, Sellebjerg F, Monthly oral methylprednisolone pulse treatment in progressive multiple sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 2015 (accepted)

Shemesh N, Jespersen SN, Alexander DC, Cohen Y, Drobnjak I, Dyrby TB, Finsterbusch J, Koch MA, Kuder T, Laun F, Lawrenz M, Lundell H, Mitra PP, Nilsson M, Özarslan E, Topgaard D, Westin CF, Conventions and nomenclature for double diffusion encoding NMR and MRI, Magn Reson Med, 2015 (accepted)

Barthélemy D, Willerslev-Olsen M, Lundell H, Biering-Sørensen F, Nielsen JB. Assessment of transmission in specific descending pathways in relation to gait and balance following spinal cord injury, Prog Brain Res. 218:79-101. 2015

Knösche TR, Anwander A, Liptrot MG, Dyrby TB, Validation of Tractography – Comparison with Manganese Tracing, Human Brain Mapping, Human Brain Mapping, DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22902, 2015

Reislev NL, KupersR, Siebner HR, Ptito M, Dyrby TB, Blindness alters the microstructure of the ventral but not the dorsal visual stream. Brain Structure and Function, DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1078-8, 2015

Sickmann HM, Arentzen TS, DyrbyTB, PlathN, Kristensen MP, Prenatal Stress Produces Sex Specific Changes in Depression-like Behavior in Rats: Implications for increased vulnerability in females, Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, (Accepted)

Lundell H, Sønderby CK, Dyrby TB, Diffusion weighted imaging with circularly polarized oscillating gradients,Magn Reson Med., 73(3), 171:1176, 2015

Daducci A, Canales-Rodriguez EJ, Zhang H, Dyrby TB, Alexander DC, Thiran JP, Accelerated Microstructure Imaging via Convex Optimization (AMICO) from diffusion MRI data, Neuroimage, 35, 32-44, 2015

Dyrby TB, Lundell H, Burke MW, Reislev NL, Paulson OB, Ptito M, Siebner HR,Interpolation of diffusion weighted imaging datasets, NeuroImage, 103, 202–213, 2014

Jespersen SN, Lundel H, Sønderby C, Dyrby TB, Commentary on ”Microanisotropy imaging: quantification of microscopic diffusion anisotropy and orientation of order parameter by diffusion MRI with magic-angle spinning of the q-vector”, Frontiers in Physics, doi: 10.3389/fphy.2014.00028, 2014

Lundell HM, Alexander DC, Dyrby TB, High angular resolution diffusion imaging with stimulated echoes: compensation and correction in experiment design and analysis, NMR in Biomedicine, 2014

Liptrot GM, SidarosK, DyrbyTB, Addressing The Path-Length-Dependency Confound In White Matter Tract Segmentation, PLOS ONE, 9 (5), e96247, 2014

Lyksborg M, SiebnerHR, SørensenPS, BlinkenbergM, Parker GJM, DogonowskiA, GardeE, LarsenR, Dyrby TB,Secondary progressive and relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis leads to motor-related decreased anatomical connectivity, PLOS ONE 9 (4), e95540, 2014

Lundell HM, Sønderby CK, Dyrby TB, Diffusion weighted imaging with circularly polarized oscillating gradients,Magn Reson Med., 2014 (accepted)

Christensen JR, Ratzer R, Börnsen L, Lyksborg M, Garde E, Dyrby TB, Siebner HR, Sørensen PS, Sellebjerg F,Natalizumab in progressive MS – results of an open-label phase 2A proof-of- concept trial. Neurology, 2014, (accepted)

Sønderby, C. K., Lundell, H. M., Søgaard, L. V. and Dyrby, T. B., Apparent exchange rate imaging in anisotropic systems. Magn Reson Med., 72(3), 756-762, 2014

Jespersen SN,LundellH, Sønderby KS, Dyrby TB, Rotationally invariant sampling of double pulsed field gradient diffusion: estimating apparent compartment eccentricity, NMR in biomedicine, 2013 (in press)

Assaf Y, Alexander DC, Jones DK, Bizzi A, Behrens T, Clark C, Cohen Y, Dyrby TB, Huppi P, Knoesche T, LeBihan D, Parker GJM, CONNECT Consortium, The CONNECT project: Combining Macro- and Micro-structure, NeuroImage, 80, 273-282, 2013

Dyrby TB, Søgaard LV, Hall MG, Ptito M, Alexander DC, Contrast and stability of the axon diameter index from microstructure imaging with diffusion MRI, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2013. 70(3), 711:721

Lundell H, Barthelemy D, Biering-Sørensen F, Cohen-Adad J, Nielsen JB, Dyrby TB., Fast diffusion tensor imaging and tractography of the whole cervical spinal cord using point spread function corrected echo planar imaging., Magn Reson Med. 2012 Mar 6. doi: 10.1002/mrm.24235. [Epub ahead of print]

Zhang H, Dyrby TB, Alexander DC., Axon diameter mapping in crossing fibers with diffusion MRI, Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2011;14(Pt 2):82-9.

Lundell H, Nielsen J B, Ptito M, Dyrby T B. Distribution of collateral fibers in the monkey cervical spinal cord detected with diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging. NeuroImage, 2011, 56(3):923-9

Dyrby TB, Baaré WFC, Alexander DC, Jelsing J, Garde E, Søgaard LV, An ex vivo imaging pipeline for producing high-quality and high-resolution diffusion weighted imaging datasets. Hum Brain Mapp. 2011 Apr;32(4):544-63

Alexander DC, Hubbard PL, Hall MG, Moore EA, Ptito M, Parker GJ, Dyrby TB. Orientationally invariant indices of axon diameter and density from diffusion MRI. Neuroimage. 2010, 52(4):1374-89

Stavngaard T, Søgaard LV, Batz M, Schreiber LM, Dirksen A. Progression of emphysema evaluated by MRI using hyperpolarized 3He (HP 3He) measurements in patients with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (A1AT), compared with CT and lung function tests. Acta Radiol. 2009, 50(9):1019-26

Sidaros A, Engberg AW, Sidaros K, Liptrot MG, Herning M, Petersen P, Paulson OB, Jernigan TL, Rostrup E. Diffusion tensor imaging during recovery from severe traumatic brain injury and relation to clinical outcome: a longitudinal study. Brain 2008, 131(Pt 2), 559-572

Dyrby TB, Sogaard LV, Parker GJ, Alexander DC, Lind NM, Baare WF, Hay-Schmidt A, Eriksen N, Pakkenberg B, Paulson OB, Jelsing J. Validation of in vitro probabilistic tractography. Neuroimage 2007, 37(4), 1267