Assoz. Prof. Roberto Viviani, PhD, MD

Senior Rese­arch Asso­ciate

Tele­fon: 0731 500-61543
Tele­fax: 0731 500-61542

E-​Mail: roberto.viviani@uni-​ulm.de

 

Sta­ti­sti­cal ana­ly­sis of neu­ro­ima­ging data

Data­ba­ses of MRI and DNA

Per­fu­sion ima­ging

Emo­tion regu­la­tion and psy­cho­the­rapy rese­arch (in col­la­bo­ra­tion with the Insti­tute of Psy­cho­logy of the Uni­ver­sity of Inns­bruck (Anna Buch­heim))

Phar­ma­co­logy and neu­ro­ima­ging (in col­la­bo­ra­tion with the Insti­tute of Cli­ni­cal Phar­ma­co­logy of the Uni­ver­sity of Ulm)

 

Trans­la­tio­nal neu­ro­ima­ging may require rethin­king the way we ana­lyse data and deve­lop spe­ci­fic sta­ti­sti­cal approa­ches (as oppo­sed to apply­ing tech­ni­ques deve­lo­ped to loca­lize func­tio­nal acti­va­tions). It will be important to com­bine evi­dence from dif­fe­rent moda­li­ties, taking into account pro­blems from each; to be able to draw infe­rence on indi­vi­dual dif­fe­ren­ces bet­ween groups, and on sin­gle indi­vi­du­als, with respect to refe­rence data­sets; to iden­tify regio­nal effects, ins­tead of the sparse, small acti­va­tions of neu­ro­psy­cho­lo­gi­cal models. These ques­ti­ons call for inno­va­tion in the sta­ti­sti­cal ana­ly­sis of neu­ro­ima­ging data, such as more aggres­sive use of resam­pling tech­ni­ques and of refe­rence ima­ging data­ba­ses, the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of typi­cal sources of vari­ance in the popu­la­tion, and the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of sophi­sti­ca­ted mul­ti­va­riate approa­ches.

A digi­tal atlas of brain vas­cu­lar den­sity is availa­ble here.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on my rese­arch may be found on the Cli­ni­cal Neu­ro­ima­ging web­page.

 

R. Viviani, I. Mes­sina, M. Wal­ter 2011. ‘Resting state func­tio­nal con­nec­ti­vity in per­fu­sion ima­ging: Cor­re­la­tion maps with BOLD con­nec­ti­vity and resting state per­fu­sion’, PLoS One, 6:e27050.

S. Bach­mann, S. Haf­fer, P. Bescho­ner, R. Viviani 2011. ‘Impu­ta­tion tech­ni­ques for the detec­tion of microstruc­tu­ral chan­ges in schi­zo­phre­nia, with an appli­ca­tion to magne­tiza­tion trans­fer ima­ging’, Schi­zo­phre­nia Rese­arch, 132:92-96.

Roberto Viviani 2011. ‘Effects of large-​scale non­sta­tio­na­rity on para­me­tric maps. A study of rest per­fu­sion CASL data’, Neu­ro­Image, 54:2066-2078.

J. Kirchhei­ner, A. See­rin­ger, A. L. Godoy, C. Maier, P. Bescho­ner, E. J. Sim, R. Viviani 2011. ‘CYP2D6 in the brain: Geno­type effects on resting brain per­fu­sion’, Mole­cu­lar Psych­ia­try, 16:333-341.

J. C. Stingl, R. Viviani 2011. ‘CYP2D6 in the brain. Impact on suci­da­lity risk?’, Cli­ni­cal Phar­ma­co­logy & The­ra­peu­tics, 89:352-353

J. Kirchhei­ner, A. See­rin­ger, R. Viviani 2010. ‘Phar­ma­co­ge­ne­tics in psych­ia­try. A use­ful cli­ni­cal tool or wish­ful thin­king for the future?’, Cur­rent Phar­maceu­ti­cal Design, 16:136-144

R. Viviani, H. Lo, E. J. Sim, P. Bescho­ner, J. C. Stingl, A. B. Horn 2010. ‘The neu­ral sub­strate of posi­tive bias in spon­ta­neous emo­tio­nal proces­sing’, PLoS One, 5:e15454.

R. Viviani, E. J. Sim, H. Lo, P. Bescho­ner, N. Oster­feld, C. Maier, A. See­rin­ger, A. Godoy, A. Rosa, D. Comas, J. Kirchhei­ner 2010. ‘Base­line brain per­fu­sion and the sero­to­nin trans­por­ter pro­mo­ter poly­mor­phism’, Bio­lo­gi­cal Psych­ia­try, 67:317-322.

Roberto Viviani 2010. ‘Unbia­sed ROI sel­ec­tion in neu­ro­ima­ging stu­dies of indi­vi­dual dif­fe­ren­ces’, Neu­ro­Image, 50:184-189.

R. Viviani, P. Bescho­ner, H. Lo, S. Rich­ter, S. Haf­fer, N. Oster­feld, J. Thöne, E. J. Sim 2010. ‘Com­po­n­ents of acquisition-​to-acquisition vari­ance in con­ti­nuous arte­rial spin label­ling (CASL) ima­ging’, BMC Neu­ro­sci­ence, 11:30.

R. Viviani, E. J. Sim, H. Lo, S. Rich­ter, S. Haf­fer, N. Oster­feld, J. Thöne, P. Bescho­ner 2009. ‘Com­po­n­ents of vari­ance in brain per­fu­sion and the design of stu­dies of indi­vi­dual dif­fe­ren­ces: The base­line study’, Neu­ro­Image, 46:12-22.

B. Abler, C. Hofer, R. Viviani 2008. ‘Habi­tual emo­tion regu­la­tion stra­te­gies and base­line brain per­fu­sion’, Neu­ro­Re­port, 19:21-24

P. Bescho­ner, S. Rich­ter, H. Lo, E. J. Sim, K. Baron, N. Oster­feld, A. B. Horn, R. Viviani 2008. ‘Base­line brain per­fu­sion and work­ing memory capa­city: A neu­ro­ima­ging study’, Neu­ro­Re­port, 19:1803-1807.

R. Viviani, P. Bescho­ner, T. Jaeckle, P. Hipp, J. Kas­subek, B. Schmitz 2007. ‘The boot­strap and cross-​validation in neu­ro­ima­ging appli­ca­ti­ons: Esti­ma­tion of the dis­tri­bu­tion of extrema of ran­dom fields for sin­gle volume tests, with an appli­ca­tion to ADC maps’, Human Brain Map­ping, 28:1075-1088.

R. Viviani, P. Bescho­ner, K. Ehr­hard, B. Schmitz, J. Thöne 2007. ‘Non-​normality and trans­for­ma­ti­ons of ran­dom fields, with an appli­ca­tion to voxel-​based mor­pho­me­try’, Neu­ro­Image, 35:121-130.

R. Viviani, G. Grön, M. Spit­zer 2005. ‘Func­tio­nal prin­ci­pal com­po­nent ana­ly­sis of fMRI data’, Human Brain Map­ping, 24:109-129.