MHRC Research Seminar: Mapping Activity, Connectivity and Connectopy: Evolving Paradigms in Functional Brain Mapping

Enjoy free admission, all are welcome.

* Seats are limited and will be arranged on a first-come-first-served basis.
* Online link will be provided if the seats are full.
* Please note that NO CPD points will be offered by the research seminar.

Topic:
Mapping Activity, Connectivity and Connectopy: Evolving Paradigms in Functional Brain Mapping

Speaker:
Prof. Christian Beckmann
Professor for Statistics in Imaging Neuroscience
Department of Medical Neuroscience
Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Abstract:
Functional neuroimaging has undergone a conceptual transformation over the past two decades, moving from detecting locality of activation to characterising distributed systems. A more recent development—connectopic mapping—extends this trajectory by characterising fine-grained, topographically organised gradients of connectivity within brain areas.

In this talk, Prof. Beckmann will outline this methodological evolution, highlighting how advances in statistical modeling, dimensionality reduction, and manifold learning have enabled new ways to understand the brain’s intrinsic functional architecture that captures continuous spatial organisation—such as somatotopy, retinotopy, and abstract cognitive gradients—that are invisible to traditional parcellation or seed-based methods. Prof. Beckmann will also discuss recent work on individual-specific mapping and the implications of connectopic analysis for precision neuroscience, developmental studies, and clinical translation. 

Biography:
Prof. Christian Beckmann is a Professor of Statistics in Imaging Neuroscience in the Department of Medical Neuroscience at Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands and is a research fellow at the University of Oxford. He is a co-developer of several core tools in FMRIB Software Library (FSL) and his work bridges methodological rigor with real-world applications in cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry.