Bogdan Draganski
LREN Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor
Neurology, CHUV
bogdan.draganski@gmail.com
phone: +41 21 314 9593
fax: +41 21 314 1256
Service of Neurology
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV)
Rue du Bugnon 46
1011 Lausanne
Switzerland
Research Interests
There is strong evidence that neural plasticity is an inherent property of the human brain; however the mechanisms underlying such plasticity remain obscure. My hypothesis is that plasticity in the human brain can be modulated by behavioural intervention both in health and disease. Crucially, this means that, when a particular function is impaired after focal brain lesion or neurodegenerative process, recovery can be meditated by intensive rehabilitation. Consequently, behaviourally relevant intervention and recovery of impaired function, over time, will be associated with predictable changes in anatomical and functional measures of the brain. I hope to establish a neurobiological explanation of neural plasticity mechanisms at the system level in order to understand how brain lesion patients’ functions recover. This will help clinicians to make (i) informed decisions as to which patients are most likely to benefit from which therapy approaches at which time point, and (ii) predictions about brain lesion patients’ recovery patterns and profiles. This will have implications not only to brain-lesioned patients but also patients suffering from neurodegenerative disorders.
Considering the promising results of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) probabilistic tractography, my aim is to improve current techniques providing a more detailed picture of cortico-subcortical connectivity. The ultimate goal of my anatomical connectivity projects is anatomical characterization of cortical and subcortical structures helping to define new targets and to predict clinical outcome in individuals undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS).
Selected Publications
Draganski B, Schneider SA, Fiorio M, Klöppel S, Gambarin M, Tinazzi M, Ashburner J, Bhatia KP, Frackowiak RS. Genotype-phenotype interactions in primary dystonias revealed by differential changes in brain structure. Neuroimage. 2009 Oct 1;47(4):1141-7
Helms G, Draganski B, Frackowiak R, Ashburner J, Weiskopf N Improved segmentation of deep brain grey matter structures using magnetization transfer (MT) parameter maps, Neuroimage. 2009 Aug 1;47(1):194-8.
Draganski B, Kherif F, Kloppel S, Cook PA, Deichmann R, Alexander DC, Parker GJM, Ashburner J, and Frackowiak, RSJ. Evidence for segregated and integrative connectivity patterns in the human basal ganglia, J Neurosci. 2008 Jul 9;28(28):7143-52
Pessiglione M, Schmidt L, Draganski B, Kalisch R, Lau H, Dolan RJ, et al. How the brain translates money into force: a neuroimaging study of subliminal motivation. Science 2007; 316: 904-6.
Draganski B, Gaser C, Kempermann G, Kuhn HG, Winkler J, Buchel C, et al. Temporal and spatial dynamics of brain structure changes during extensive learning. J Neurosci 2006; 26: 6314-7.
Draganski B, Gaser C, Busch V, Schuierer G, Bogdahn U, May A. Neuroplasticity: changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature 2004; 427: 311-2
