Platforma de Imagistică Avansată – MRI/EEG – Ştiinţele Cognitive Clinice

Programul de Neuroştiinţe Clinice la UBB

 

I. Introducere:

Prin Hotărârea Consiliului de Administraţie din UBB Nr. 6952 din 4 mai 2009, Programul de „Neuroştiinţe Clinice” a devenit un program prioritar al UBB, coordonat de Prof. univ. dr. Daniel David, care va beneficia timp de un an de 3 posturi finanţate din resursele Rectoratului UBB.

Catedra de Psihologie Clinică şi Psihoterapie a Universităţii Babeş-Bolyai (UBB) este cea mai vizibilă unitate psihologică din România sub aspectul cercetării ştiinţifice şi aplicaţiilor inovative.

Tema de „Neuroştiinţe Clinice” este o temă emergentă la nivel internaţional, clasificată între primele ca importanţă şi impact în următorii ani de către „National Science Foundation”, SUA.

Programul de „Neurostiinţe Clinice” va fi organizat la UBB pe fundalul Programului de „Modele Biologice ale Psihopatologiei”, Platforma de Imagistică Avansată -fMRI/EEG – Ştiinţele Cognitive Clinice din cadrul Catedrei de Psihologie Clinică şi Psihoterapie, focalizat fiind pe substratul neurobiologic al stărilor de boală şi sănătate psihică, cu implicaţii pentru psihopatologie şi consiliere/psihoterapie. Programul va include membri ai Catedrei de Psihologie Clinică şi Psihoterapie dar şi specialişti remarcabili, care nu fac parte din Catedră, asigurându-se astfel o interdisciplinaritate complexă, care să permită abordarea unor probleme teoretice şi/sau practice majore şi relevante. Orice profesionist din UBB, cu anvergură internaţională în domeniu, poate deveni, la cerere, membru al Programului, în condiţiile în care temele lui de cercetare se integrează în demersului acestuia; şi alţi profesionişti din afara UBB-ului pot deveni membri ai Programului, la cerere sau prin invitaţie,  în condiţiile în care pot contribui la dezvoltarea acestuia.

 

II. Obiective:

Aşa cum am spus mai sus, tema de „Neuroştiinţe Clinice” este o temă emergentă la nivel internaţional, clasificată între primele ca importanţă şi impact în următorii ani de către „National Science Foundation”, SUA. Programul de „Neuroştiinţe Clinice” la UBB are ca obiective abordarea substratului biologic al stărilor de boală şi sănătate mintală, urmărind în final atât clarificarea unor mecanisme neurocerebrale cât şi elaborarea unor tehnologii neurocognitive pentru promovarea sănătăţii şi tratamentul tulburărilor psihice. Abordarea se face multinivelar: (1) Computaţional (paradigma ştiinţelor cognitive); (2) Algoritmic-reprezentaţional (paradigma ştiinţelor neurocognitive); (3) Neurobiologic (paradigma neuroştiinţelor clinice, de la nivel celular la nivel clinic).

 

Prezentă mai jos infrastructura de cercetare a programului. Prezentarea este în limba engleză deoarece Platforma se doreşte un pol de excelenţa la nivel european, integrată în reţele internaţionale similare.

 

The Platform for Advanced Imaging – MRI/EEG – in Clinical Cognitive Sciences

The Platform for Advanced Imaging – MRI/EEG – in Clinical Cognitive Sciences is part of the Program of Biological Models (cognitive neurosciences/ethology/evolutionary/) of Psychopathology in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy of the Babes-Bolyai University.

Brief History

In 2007 we founded the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Babes-Bolyai University. In its research and development strategy, approved in 2007, we planed to develop two word-class research platforms, as part of our clinical cognitive sciences paradigm: (1) one for clinical cognitive neurosciences and (2) one for virtual reality interventions (including robotics in psychotherapy).

In 2008 we applied for various national and international grants in order to develop our research infrastructure. The university was also very supportive in developing our research infrastructure, as the department is one of the excellence academic units of the university.

The Platform for Robotherapy and Virtual Reality Psychotherapy was set in 2009 and it is an excellence research unit of the Department (see at http://www.psytech.ro).

The Platform for Advanced Imaging – MRI/EEG – in Clinical Cognitive Sciences is our newest Platform (operational starting with December 2011). Once we obtained the infrastructure an intense program of personnel organization and training began.

In order to organize the Platform according to the highest international standards, we (Dr. David) visited similar laboratories at Harvard University, Yale University, Oxford University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and New-York University.

We then focused on the training of our academic and non-academic staff. The main contribution in the training programs was due to some of our international collaborators:

• University of Pisa, Italy
• Dr. Mario Guazzelli, Dr. Pietro Pietrini and their team had a key contribution (e.g., academic courses/workshops) in training our colleagues (some of our colleagues practically worked for several years in the Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Biotechnologies at the University of Pisa; common research projects and proposals are underway)
• Harvard University, USA
• Dr. Charles Nelson; one of our faculties had an internship in his program
• Dr. Ovidiu Andronesi was involved in our training and also put us in contact with top Harvard researchers in the field, who delivered several key training/workshops:
• Dr. Ovidiu Andronesi – Advanced MR based methods for neuroimaging (common research projects and proposals are underway)
• Dr. Giorgio Bonmassar – Fundamentals and advances of EEG
• Dr. Gaab Nadine – fMRI and children

Organization

The Platform for Advanced Imaging – MRI/EEG – in Clinical Cognitive Sciences (Dr. Daniel David & Dr. Alina Rusu, co-supervisors) is the first one in Romania, having a top research infrastructure (e.g., the first Skyra-MRI in Romania). It has the following structure:

• A Center for Clinical Neurosciences (Dr. Octavian Popescu & Dr. Daniel David, co-supervisors). The Center is also part of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies in Bio-Nano-Sciences of the Babes-Bolyai University, where it is located some of our research faculty and where we have educational and research seminars for master, doctoral, and postdoctoral students.
• Clinical Cognitive Neurosciences Laboratory (Ioana Cristea, director)
• Genetic Counseling Laboratory (Ramona Moldovan, director)
• A Center for the Study of Human-Animal Interaction (Alina Rusu, director)
• Study of Human-Animal Interaction Laboratory (Bianca Macavei, director)

Research Infrastructure

The Platform is localized at the “Raluca Ripan” Institute for Research in Chemistry, No. 30 Fantanele Street, Cluj-Napoca.

MRI (Siemens Skyra)

The MRI equipment consists of a 3 Tesla Siemens Skyra MRI with large bore (70 cm) and 32 channel head coil. Spinal coil, body coils and flexible coils are also available for other clinical applications. Available imagistic applications include angiography, cardiology, abdominal, perfusion, diffusion tensor imaging, nervous tract visualization, functional imaging, spectroscopy and dynamic breast imaging. Parallel acquisition techniques and movement corrections are included (all coils are compatible for parallel acquisition).

 

EEG System (EMS Pegasus/Phoenix)

The system is a 32-channels digital one that includes a photo stimulator. It permits FFT analysis, brain mapping and it is also equipped for event potential registration and analysis.

Working Procedure

People interested to use our facilities should address their request to Ioana Cristea (ioanacristea@psychology.ro), describing (1) their planned activities, (2) the resources they need (including time and personnel). The fee for a 2 hour session of access to MRI is 500 Euro; if our team is a partner in research the fee is 300 Euro.

The Platform will also offer services to the community, working with trained physicians.

Ethical and research procedures of the Babes-Bolyai University should be followed in any type of activity of the Platform.

Sample publications

• David D, Szentagotai A, Lupu V, & Cosman D. (2008). Rational emotive behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and medication in the treatment of major depressive disorder: a randomized clinical trial, posttreatment outcomes, and six-month follow-up. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 728-746.
• Cristea I, Gentili G, Ricciardi E, Rota G, Bonino D, David D, Pietrini P, Guazzelli M. Brain correlates of rational and irrational beliefs: an fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal. Poster presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Organization of Human Brain Mapping, June 2011.

International representations

• The Human Brain: from Cells to Society (European Science Foundation)