Saskia

I’m a Biomedical Engineer by training¹B.Sc. at the Ilmenau Technical University and M.Sc. at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and I’m investigating how the measurement device (= MRI scanner) interacts with the signal generator (= brain).

For example, during my PhD at the Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, we could show how the increase in sampling rate provided by simultaneous multislice imaging considerably changes the spectral properties of the fMRI signal.²Serial correlations in single-subject fMRI with sub-second TRHowever, also the participant can impact the MRI scanner: at ETH Zurich we investigated how the magnetic field created by the person in the scanner affects the image formation.³Analysis and correction of field fluctuations in fMRI data using field monitoring

Ultimately, my goal is to fine tune the data acquisition using my understanding of the fundamental principles of MRI and brain structure and function. For example, targeting fine-grained structures in a small patch of the cortex⁴Measuring the effects of attention to individual fingertips in somatosensory cortex using ultra-high field (7T) fMRI or providing homogenous sensitivity across various underlying tissue compositions.⁵Using multi-echo simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) EPI to improve functional MRI of the subcortical nuclei of the basal ganglia at ultra-high field (7T)

Currently, I’m looking for challenging neuroscientific questions that are just at the limit of what fMRI can provide.