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Neuroimaging Lab

​​​​​​​​Welcome to the webpage of the Neuroimaging Lab at the Department of Neurology, University of Leipzig Medical Center.

​​
The primary focus of our group is the research of brain networks in the healthy and injured brain using the methods of modern brain imaging.
One particular focus is studying the neural mechanisms underlying language reorganization after stroke. A better understanding of these mechanisms will allow us to develop novel network-based therapies, e.g. stimulating brain networks using non-invasive brain stimulation.
In addition, we organize large clinical and imaging data in a database dedicated to better understand therapy response after stroke and factors that influence recovery.

For more information go to:
https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Neuroimaging-Lab-Dorothee-Saur

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Activities

Labvisit June, 2023: MRC Cognition and Brain ScienceS Unit, University of Cambridge.

Collage_Cambridge.pngLectures, scientific exchange and the unique Cambridge atmosphere made our
​Labvisit at MRC CBSU​ in Cambridge a uniq​ue experience.
​Hosted by Prof. Matt Lambon-Ralph and Dr. Ajay Halai.​​




BRAIN Conference 2023 - Prediction of tissue outcome in stroke patients with EVT using a GLM




Brain Conference 2023 - Individualized tissue outcome prediction using convolutional neural networks




NETWORK. BEHAVIOUR. RECOVERY.

Understanding changes in connectivity after stroke.

Freiburg.jpg
​The Neuroimaging working group at the Neurex symposium in Freiburg, Feb 3, 2023​​


The AG Neuroimaging presents itself at the DGN Congress in Berlin​

Symposium on the topic: "Stroke - a network perspective" and poster presentation


arte X:ENIUS: How can you "simulate" a stroke?





PRESS RELEASE: SPEECH DISORDER AFTER STROKE

Post about the Neuroimaging working group

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Contact

Lab & Study administration
Ines Kunis
Room G1074
Liebigstraße 20, House 4
04103 Leipzig
Telephone:  + 49 341 - 97 24243​​
E-mail:  ines.kunis@medizin.uni-leipzig.de


Members

​​

​Professor Dorothee Saur, MD
Group Leader

Telephone: 0341 - 97 24243, -24197
E-Mail:  dorothee.saur@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Room G 1008

CV

Publications:
ORCID iD iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1808-0913

​Julian Klingbeil, MD
Postdoc

Telephone: 0341 - 97 24215, -24243
E-Mail:  julian.klingbeil@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Room 143 „Carl Wernicke“ – Haus am Park

CV

Publications:
ORCID iD iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9306-9212​

Sophie Marie Meixensberger
Postdoc

Telephone: 0341 - 97 24200​
Telefax: 0341 - 97 24209
E-Mail:  Sophie.Meixensberger@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

​Anika Stockert, MD
Postdoc

Telephone: 0341 - 97 24215, -24243
E-Mail:  anika.stockert@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Room 143 „Carl Wernicke“ – Haus am Park

CV

Publications:
ORCID iD iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5804-2498​

​​
Kristin Marie Stoll, MD

Postdoc

Telephone: 0341 - 97 24215, -24243
E-Mail: ​​​​Kristin.Stoll@medizin.uni-leipzig.de​
Room 143 „Carl Wernicke“ – Haus am Park

​Max Wawrzyniak, MD
Postdoc

Telephone: 0341 - 97 24215, -24243
E-Mail:  max.wawrzyniak@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Room 143 „Carl Wernicke“ – Haus am Park

CV​​​

Publications​:
ORCID iD iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5089-1214

Florian Welle
Postdoc

Telefon: 0341 - 97 24200
Telefax: 0341 - 97 24209
E-Mail:  Florian.Welle@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

​​

​Ines Kunis
Study coordinator, Speech and language pathologist

Telephone: 0341 - 97 24243
E-Mail:  ines.kunis@medizin.uni-leipzig.de ​​


Student Assistants​​

Marcel Urbaniak, medical student

E-Mail: Marcel.Urbaniak@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

Robin Kutzner, computer science student

E-Mail: Robin.Kutzner@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

Karla Rottmayer, medical student
E-Mail: ​Karla.Rottmayer@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

Tia Detzer, medical student

Moritz Praha, medical student
E-Mail: Moritz.Praha@medizin.uni-leipzig.de​​

Research Focus and Methods

  • Multimodal neuroimaging studies of the functional neuroanatomy of cognitive brain networks and their network pathologies in neurological diseases, in particular stroke
  • Longitudinal studies of the mechanisms of loss and recovery of language functions after stroke
  • Development and application of methods to modulate brain networks, e. g. non-invasive brain stimulation or real-time fMRI neurofeedback
  • Prediction of clinical and tissue outcome after stroke using machine learning methods based on multimodal neuroimaging

Methods​​:


  • Functional Magnet Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and resting-state-fMRI
  • Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
  • Voxel-Based Lesion Symptom Mapping (VBLSM) and Network symptom mapping
  • (Multifocal) Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation(TMS)
  • Machine learning ​

Cooperations

Publications

Current publication lists are available via the ORCID-IDs of the working group members

Key publications of the working group (File)

  1. Saur D, Lange R, Baumgaertner A, Schraknepper V, Willmes K, Rijntjes M, Weiller C. Dynamics of language reorganization after stroke. Brain 2006; 129:1371-1384. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awl090

  2. Saur D, Kreher BW, Schnell S, Kümmerer D, Kellmeyer P, Vry M-S, Umarova R, Musso M, Glauche V, Abel S, Huber W, Rijntjes M, Hennig J, Weiller C. Ventral and dorsal pathways for language. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008; 105(45): 18035-18040. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0805234105

  3. Saur D, Ronneberger O, Kümmerer D, Mader I, Weiller C, Klöppel, S. Early fMRI activations predict language outcome after stroke. Brain 2010; 133; 1252-1264. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awq021

  4. Kümmerer D, Hartwigsen G, Kellmeyer P, Glauche V, Mader I, Klöppel S, Suchan J, Karnath HO, Weiller C, Saur D. Damage to ventral and dorsal language pathways in acute aphasia. Brain 2013; 2: 619-629. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/aws354

  5. Hartwigsen G, Weigel A, Schuschan P, Siebner HR, Weise D, Classen J, Saur D. Dissociating Parieto-Frontal Networks for Phonological and Semantic Word Decisions: A Condition-and-Perturb TMS Study. Cereb Cortex 2016; 26: 2590-25601. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhv092

  6. Hartwigsen G, Bzdok D, Klein M, Wawrzyniak M, Stockert A, Wrede K, Classen C, Saur D. Rapid short-term reorganisation in the language network. eLlife 2017; 6. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25964.001

  7. Hartwigsen G., Saur D. Neuroimaging of stroke recovery from aphasia – Insights into plasticity of the human language network. Neuroimage 2019; 190: 14-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.11.056

  8. Klingbeil J, Wawrzyniak M, Stockert A, Karnath HO, Saur D. Hippocampal diaschisis contributes to anosognosia for hemiplegia: evidence from lesion network-symptom mapping. Neuroimage 2020; 208: 116485. 
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116485

  9. Stockert A, Wawrzyniak M, Klingbeil J, Wrede K, Kümmerer D, Hartwigsen G, Kaller CP, Weiller C, Saur D. Dynamics of language reorganization after left temporo-parietal and frontal stroke. Brain 2020; 143(3) 844-861.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awaa023

  10. Hartwigsen G, Stockert A, Charpentier L, Wawrzyniak M, Klingbeil J, Wrede K, Obrig H, Saur D. Short-term modulation of the lesioned language network. eLife 2020; 9. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54277

  11. Klingbeil J, Wawrzyniak M, Stockert A, Brandt ML, Schneider HR, Metelmann M, Saur D. Pathological laughter and crying: insights from lesion network-symptom-mapping. Brain 2021; 144: 3264-3276.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab224

  12. Wawrzyniak M, Schneider HR, Klingbeil J, Stockert A, Hartwigsen G, Weiller C, Saur D. Resolution of diaschisis contributes to early recovery from post-stroke aphasia. Neuroimage 2022; 251:119001.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119001

  13. Stockert A, Hormig-Rauber S, Wawrzyniak M, Klingbeil J, Schneider HR, Prilich M, Schob S, Hoffmann KT, Saur D. Involvement of thalamocortikal Networs in Patients with poststroke thalamic aphasia. Neurology, in press.
    https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000201488

External Funding

James S. McDonnell Foundation (JSMF): "Function, dysfunction and recovery of speech networks". 1/2012-12/2019 (Dorothee Saur)

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG, SA 1723/5-1): "Cognitive and neurobiological characterization of deficit awareness in post-stroke aphasia" 1/2019-12/2021 (Dorothee Saur, Julian Klingbeil)​​

Doctoral Students

Sophia Hormig, cand. med.
E-Mail: sophia.hormig@web.de
Topic: Thalamic network pathology

Susann Machleb, cand. med.
E-Mail: susann.machleb@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Topic: Deficit awareness in patients with aphasia: Monitoring of progress and neuronal correlates

Max-Lennart Brandt, cand. med.
E-Mail: max-lennart.brandt@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Topic: Neurobiological correlates of post-stroke depression: a lesion network study​

Sandra Martin, cand. rer. nat.
E-Mail: martin@cbs.mpg.de
Topic: The domain-general network in language processing: Its role in the healthy brain and in language recovery in chronic post-stroke aphasia. 
A cooperative project with the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Gesa Hartwigsen)

Caroline Stephan, cand. med.
E-Mail: caro_sn2000@yahoo.de
Topic: Lesion network mapping of structural epilepsy after stroke

Florian Welle, cand. med.
E-Mail: Florian.Welle@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Topic: Multiparametric prediction of tissue outcome in patients with proximal intracranial vessel occlusion and mechanical recanalization​​

Martin Mühlig, cand. med.
E-Mail: Martin.Muehlig@medizin.uni-leipzig.de​
Topic: The role of overconfidence in anosognosia in neurological disorders​

Emma Bahr, cand. med.
E-Mail: Emma.Bahr@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Topic: The importance of self-overestimation in patients with anosognosia

​Niklas Wiemers, cand. med.
E-Mail: Niklas.Wiemers@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Topic:  Cooperation project about language recovery with Prof. Matt Lambon-Ralph, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences, University of Cambridge

Zhizhao Jiang, cand. rer. nat.
E-Mail: ​zjiang@cbs.mpg.de
Topic: Changes in effective onnectivity in the language and multiple-demand network after left temporo​-parietal and frontal stroke
A cooperative project with the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Gesa Hartwigsen)

Marcel Urbaniak, cand. med.
E-Mail: ​Marcel.Urbaniak@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Topic:
Methodological optimization and validation of functional lesion network mapping

Alexander Groos, cand.med.
E-Mail: Alexander.Groos@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Topic:
Prediction of individual functional benefits of mechanical recanalization in acute cerebral infarction

Tim Ritter, cand. med.
E-Mail:
tr12paky@studserv.uni-leipzig.de
Thema:
Neurological failures and their perception in Alzheimer’s type dementia

Completed Dissertations

  • Hans Ralf Schneider, MD
    Topic: fMRI informed voxel-based lesion behavior mapping to identify lesions associated with right-hemispheric activation in aphasia recovery​
    Defence: June 1, 2023
  • Cathleen Höfer, MD
    Topic: Brain volumetric measurements and recording of verbal and spatial memory performance in patients with transient global amnesia
    Defence: June 9, 2022​
  • Max Wawrzyniak, MD
    Topic: Functional relevance and modulation of resting state connectivity in the semantic language network
    Defence: April 26, 2018​
  • Anni Weigel, MD
    Topic: Contribution of frontal and parietal brain regions in semantic and phonological decisions: a TMS study
    Defence: November 2, 2017
  • Christin Wendt, MD
    Topic: Temporo-frontal interactions in semantic integration: an fMRI-TMS study
    Defence: November 2, 2017
  • Thomas Golombek, MD
    Topic: The role of the left angular gyrus in auditory language comprehension (in cooperation with the MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences)
    Defence: February 5, 2015
  • Maren Klein, MD
    Topic: Modulation of phonological and semantic processes in the language network: a combined TMS-fMRI study
    Defence: March 26, 2015​​

Doctorate

We mainly assign experimental doctoral theses, whereby a semester on leave is usually necessary during the course of the thesis. Above-average commitment and a special interest in neuroscientific work are prerequisites for acceptance as a doctoral student. Participation in the weekly doctoral seminar (see lab meeting) is expected. Here, new projects, (interim) results and publications related to the various doctoral topics are presented.

If you are interested in a medical doctoral thesis on the topics of the research group, please send an E-mail with a meaningful curriculum vitae to dorothee.saur@medizin.uni-leipzig.de​​

Lab Meeting

Thursday, 5pm in seminar room G1024 together with the working group Prof. Claßen​​
Liebigstraße 20, Haus 4
04103 Leipzig
Chefsekretariat:
0341 - 97 24200
Ambulanz:
0341 - 97 24302
Fax:
0341 - 97 24209
Map