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Talks: Pro Gallery

Invited talks

2025

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Understanding Individual Differences and Disorders in the Age of Big Data, EWCN, Bressanone, January 26th - 31st, 2025

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2024

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Neural, South Africa, 23rd - 29th October 2024

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Symposium on navigated brain stimulation in neurosurgery and neuromodulation, Charite Berlin, 10-11th October 2024

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Genetics and Neurobiology of Language, Banbury Center of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, July 25-August 1, 2024​

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The Highlights of Language in Interaction, Nijmegen, Netherlands, July 8th 2024

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International Symposium on Brain Structure and Function, Okazaki, Japan, July1st-2nd

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Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Conference (OHBM), Seoul, South Korea, June 23rd - 27th 2024

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The impact of White Matter Anatomy for Brain tumor and Epilepsy surgery, University of Zurich, Switzerland, June 16-18th 2024

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AI-based prediction of long-term cognitive-behavioural symptoms in stroke using connectomics, ESOC, Basel, May 15 - 17th 2024

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Elizabeth Warrington Prize lecture, BNS Spring Meeting, UCL Queen Square London, UK, April 24-25th 2024

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European Low Grade Glioma Network (ELGGN), Heidelberg, Germany, April 2024

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Tract-Anat retreat,  Institute of Scientific Studies of Cargese (IESC), Corsica, France, March 11th - 15th 2024

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DGKN24: Neurovariabillity & Disconnections - new explanatory models for neurology, Frankfurt, 6-9th March, 2024 

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Brainhack: Diffusion & Tractography, Padova Neuroscience Center - PNC, University of Padua, February 25-28th 2024 

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2023

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ICP Network Meeting Utrecht, NL, November 30st -December 1st 2023

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Academy of Aphasia, Reading, UK, October 21-26th 2023

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Open Science Workshop, Neurocampus Bordeaux, October 16th-20th 2023

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European Academy of Neurology Autumn School, Loutraki, Greece, October 12-16, 2023

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Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Conference (OHBM), Montreal July 22nd - 26th 2023

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Salzburg Mind Brain Annual Meeting (SAMBA), July 13th-14th 2023

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AI Neuro summer school 2023: Neuroimaging, Neuro-oncology & Neuroscience, Lipari, Sicily, Italy, 25th-30th June 2023

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The impact of White Matter Anatomy for Brain tumor and Epilepsy surgery, University of Zurich, Switzerland, June 5th-7th 2023

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INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR MAPPING THE BRAIN (George Samanduras), LONDON, UK, April 17-19, 2023

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The Future of Brain Research, Human Brain Project Summit, Marseille, France (Katrin Amunts), March 29, 2023

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Symposium, Understanding changes in connectivity after stroke, Freiburg, Germany (Cornelius Weiller), 3-4 February 2023

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Brain networks and cognition, CIC Lecture, Cerebral Imaging Center, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Canada, January 25th, 2023

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It's all in the connections, NeuroNijmegen, Netherlands, 23rd January 2023

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Neurobiological underpinnings of language variability, Language in Interaction, Nijmegen (Peter Hargoot), Netherlands, 18th January 2023

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Tractography Methods, Institute of Neurology, University College London (George Samandouras), 10th January 2023

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2022

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BCN / TUM Virtual Grand Rounds, Charite Neurochirurgie + TU München Neurochirurgie (Sandro Krieg), 14th December 2022 

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Keynote lecture, Utrecht Brain Conference (Chantal Tax), 6th December 2022

 

Mapping brain connections: from anatomy to the clinic. Brain Mapping Seminar (David Shattuck), UCLA online, November 2022

Japanese meeting for Human Brain Imaging, Virtual Talk Series. JHBI Talk Series, Japan (Hiromasa Takemura), August 2022 online.

 

Variability in language networks. SOA: Science of Aphasia,  September 2022, Bordeaux, FR.

Hands-on on Microneurosurgery and White Matter Anatomy relevant for Brain Tumors: the Zurich School, Zurich, June 2022.

 

Brain connections and cognition, Donders/NIN meeting 2022, Amsterdam, 13th June 2022,

Diffusion MRI. Neuro 222: Brain Imaging and Brain Stimulation (David Shattuck), UCLA online, April 2022

6th Annual World Course on Brain Mapping (George Samanduras), London, online, 1st April 2022

Neurovariability and the language connectome. Key Issues and Ways Forward II, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, March 2022.

Neurovariability and disconnections in stroke. Neuroimaging Seminars at University of Manchester (Nils Muhlert), February 2022

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2021


Brain mapping methods – from post mortem to digital dissections, Cognitive Neuroscience Guest lectures 2021 at WITS University (Sahba Besharati), South Africa, Online 4th November 2021

How Broca and Wernicke got it wrong - the neurobiology of language, Bordeaux Neurocampus day, 30th September 2021, Talance

The new anatomy of language - the language connectome, European Researchers' night 2021, Online 24th September 

The changing landscape of clinical-anatomical  tractography, Brain Research using Advanced Imaging in Neurology (BRAIN) lab (Simon Keller), online August 2021

The language connectome, Towards Precision Neurology, 7th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN), online, June 2021

Individual variability and brain evolution, Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Conference (OHBM), online (Sarah Genon), June 2021

Inter-individual variability in cognitive and clinical neuroscience: signal or noise?, Donders Institute, Nijmegen, online, May 2021

Interindiviual variability and tractography, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Cologne (Lana Kambeitz-Ilankovic), online April 2021


 

2020


Wissenschaftlicher Austausch in der Pandemie, Forschungscafe at the Bayrische Forschungsallianz, (Dr. Florence Gauzy), online 2020

Brainhack Diversity. Inter-individual variability in cognitive and clinical neuroscience: signal or noise?, Brainhack Padua 2020, online (Antonio Vallesi), 2020

Individual variability and brain evolution, Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Conference (OHBM), online (Sarah Genon), 2020

Variability of structural connections within and between species, Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Conference (OHBM), online (symposium organiser), 2020

Connectional anatomy of language and aphasia, World Federation of Neurology Research Group on Aphasia, Dementia & Cognitive Disorders, Nara, Japan (Lisa Cipolotti), cancelled due to COVID-19, 2020

Variability of structural connections within and between species, Neurothursday at the Higher School of Economic Moscow (Olga Dragoy), 2020.

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Until 2019


White matter tractography in neurosurgery, Neuro-Kopf Zentrum Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Munich, Germany (Sebastian Ille/Sandro Krieg), 2019
 
Individual variability and brain evolution, Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Conference (OHBM), Rome, Italy (Michel Thiebaut de Schotten), 2019

White matter tractography – the do’s and don’ts, The impact of White Matter Anatomy for Brain tumor and Epilepsy surgery, University of Zurich, Switzerland (Niklaus Krayenbühl), 2019

Connectional anatomy of the language network – clinical implication, The impact of White Matter Anatomy for Brain tumor and Epilepsy surgery, University of Zurich, Switzerland (Niklaus Krayenbühl), 2019

Applied tractography for the in vivo study of white matter connections: Clinical use and limitations, European Low Grade Glioma Network (ELGGN), King’s College London, UK (Francesco Vergani), 2019

Tractography workshop for neurosurgical applications, European Low Grade Glioma Network (ELGGN), King’s College London, UK (Francesco Vergani), 2019

Public Outreach: the story behind the picture, IOPPN Research Festival, London, UK (Thalia Eley), 2019


The brain in health and disease – how we are wired for change, Pint of Science Festival, London, UK (Rachel Jackson), 2018

Neuronal networks in language and aphasia, Academy of Aphasia, Montreal, Canada (Leonardo Bonilha), 2018

Anatomical evidence for an indirect pathway for repetition, ICM Institute for Brain and Spinal Cord, Paris (Michel Thiebaut de Schotten), 2018

Language network & tractography, 10th International Symposium on Navigated Brain Stimulation in Neurosurgery and Neuromodulation, Charite Berlin, Germany (Thomas Picht), 2018

Impact of anatomy on brain recovery, The impact of White Matter Anatomy for Brain tumor and Epilepsy surgery, University of Zurich, Switzerland (Niklaus Kryenbühl), 2018

White matter tractography – what we can and cannot do, The impact of White Matter Anatomy for Brain tumor and Epilepsy surgery, University of Zurich, Switzerland (Niklaus Kryenbühl), 2018



20th Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, King’s College London, London, UK. (Marco Catani), 2017

White matter imaging in stroke populations, Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Conference (OHBM), Vancouver (Amy Broadmann), 2017

Neuroanatomy & Tractography workshop, 6th World Course in Advanced Brain Tumour Surgery, University College London, UK (George Samanduras), 2017

Advances in Diffusion Tractography Applied to Neurosurgical Patients, Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Neurocirugía conference, Barcelona, Spain, 2017

First white matter tracts dissection course, Royal College of Surgeons of England, London, UK (Ugur Türe), 2017

19th Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, King’s College London, London, UK. (Marco Catani), 2017

It all comes down to clinical neuroanatomy, Brainhack London, King’s College London, UK. (Daniel Marguiles), 2017

Principles of diffusion imaging and tractography, 8th Istanbul Microneurosurgery Course, Istanbul, Turkey (Ugur Türe), 2017

Impact of anatomy on brain recovery, 8th Istanbul Microneurosurgery Course, Istanbul, Turkey (Ugur Türe), 2017

Connectional anatomy and the impact on language recovery, Mount Sinai Institute, New York, US (Paula Croxson), 2017



Impact of anatomy on brain recovery, Brainhack Paris: Global edition, (Michel Thiebaut de Schotten), 2016

The connectivity of language, Royal Society of Medicine, London, UK (Richard Gullan/ Francesco Vergani), 2016

Workshop: tractography-based dissections of language networks, Academy of Aphasia, Bangor, Wales, UK (Nina Dronkers), 2016

Fibre tracts relevant for auditory and language processing, Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Conference (OHBM), Geneva, Switzerland (Karl Zilles), 2016

Brain Connectivity and Imaging in Neurooncology, King's Neurosurgery Club at the Royal Society of Medicine, London, UK 2016

Neuroanatomy of semantic and phonemic verbal fluency, International Neuropsychological Society (INS), London, UK, 2016

Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, King’s College London, London, UK (Marco Catani), 2016



Connectional anatomy of language and its impact on language recovery, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia (Olga Dragoy), 2015

Tractography in the clinic: stroke-induced aphasia, Northwestern University, Chicago, US (Marsel M Mesulam/ Emily Rogalski/Cynthia Thompson), 2015

Towards a new connectional anatomy of language, University of Illinois, Chicago, US (Melissa Lamar), 2015

Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (Marco Catani), 2015

Human lesion neuropsychology will inevitably be replaced by neuroimaging as research tool for understanding cognition. Oxford-style John Marshall Debate at the British Neuropsychological Society, University College London, London, UK (Katerina Fotopoulou), 2015

Tractography in the clinic, ICM Institute for Brain and Spinal Cord, Paris, France (Michel Thiebaut de Schotten), 2015



Diskonnektion neuronaler Verbindungen als Ursache klinischer Symptome nach Schlaganfall, Technische Universität München (TUM), Munich, Germany, 2014

Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, King’s College London, London, UK (Marco Catani), 2014

Pathways to language, Rewired. The Brain, Art & Innovation, Bloomsbury Theatre, London, UK, 2014



Anatomical predictors of language recovery: a tractography study, VA Martinez, San Francisco, US (Nina Dronkers), 2013

Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, King’s College London, London, UK (Marco Catani), 2013

Identification of anatomical predictors of language recovery after stroke, ICM Institute for Brain and Spinal Cord, Paris, France (Michel Thiebaut de Schotten), 2013



Post stroke aphasia recovery predicated by lateralization of the arcuate fasciculus, International Stroke Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2012

Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, King’s College London, London, UK (Marco Catani), 2012

Tractography in clinical and healthy populations, Max Planck Institute (MPI), Leipzig, Germany (Angela Friederici), 2012



Lateralisation of the arcuate predicts recovery at 6 months, American Academy of Neurology, New Orleans, US, 2011

Lateralisation of the arcuate predicts recovery at 6 months, Academy of Aphasia, Montreal, Canada, 2011

Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, King’s College London, London, UK (Marco Catani), 2011

Lateralisation of the arcuate predicts recovery at 6 months, International school of clinical neuroanatomy, Sicily (Marco Catani), 2011



Lateralisation of the arcuate predicts recovery at 6 months, South London Stroke Research Group, London, UK (Lalit Kalra), 2010

Neuroanatomy and Tractography workshop, King’s College London, London, UK (Marco Catani), 2010

A uniquely human direct pathway connects frontal and occipital lobes, British Chapter ISMRM, London, UK (Po-Wah So), 2010

The projection pathways in the brain shown with tractography, European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone, Italy, 2010

Clinical applications of tractography, European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone, Italy, 2010

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Talks: Experience
OHBM2023 Neurovariability – a predictor of cognition in health and disease
19:17
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

OHBM2023 Neurovariability – a predictor of cognition in health and disease

Neurovariability – a predictor of cognition in health and disease Inter-individual differences can inform treatment procedures and—if accounted for—have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. However, when studying brain anatomy, these inter-individual variations are commonly unaccounted for, despite reports of differences in gross anatomical features, cross-sectional, and connectional anatomy. Brain connections are essential to facilitate functional organization and, when severed, cause impairments or complete loss of function. Hence, the study of cerebral white matter is an ideal compromise to capture inter-individual variability in the brain’s structure and function (i.e. neurovariability). Brain pathologies amplify this variability through disconnection and, consequently, the disintegration of cognitive function. In this talk, we will look at the impact of neurovariability of the connected brain in health and in neurological diseases. Understanding what we all share and what makes us unique will change how we approach neurological disorders diagnostics and improve precision neuroscience. Part of the symposium 'Neuroimaging of brain injury: methods, frameworks, and applications'
Stroke disconnectome decodes reading networks - Stephanie Forkel
03:29
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

Stroke disconnectome decodes reading networks - Stephanie Forkel

Cognitive functional neuroimaging has been around for over 30 years and has shed light on the brain areas relevant for reading. However, new methodological developments enable mapping the interaction between functional imaging and the underlying white matter networks. In this study, we used such a novel method, called the disconnectome, to decode the reading circuitry in the brain. We used the resulting disconnection patterns to predict a typical lesion leading to reading deficits after brain damage. Our results suggest that white matter connections critical for reading include fronto-parietal U-shaped fibres and the vertical occipital fasciculus (VOF). The lesion most predictive of a reading deficit would impinge on the left temporal, occipital, and inferior parietal gyri. This novel framework can systematically be applied to bridge the gap between the neuropathology of language and cognitive neuroscience. Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-022-02575-x Brain Structure and Function (2022) 227:2897–2908
NeuroNijmegen - It's all in the connections
01:12:38
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

NeuroNijmegen - It's all in the connections

OHBM 2022 PosterPitch – White matter variability, cognition and disorders
03:10
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

OHBM 2022 PosterPitch – White matter variability, cognition and disorders

Inter-individual differences can inform treatment procedures and—if accounted for—have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. However, when studying brain anatomy, these inter-individual variations are commonly unaccounted for, despite reports of differences in gross anatomical features, cross-sectional, and connectional anatomy. Brain connections are essential to facilitate functional organization and, when severed, cause impairments or complete loss of function. Hence, the study of cerebral white matter may be an ideal compromise to capture inter-individual variability in structure and function. We reviewed the wealth of studies that associate cognitive functions and clinical symptoms with individual tracts using diffusion tractography. Our systematic review indicates that tractography has proven to be a sensitive method in neurology, psychiatry, and healthy populations to identify variability and its functional correlates. However, the literature may be biased, as the most commonly studied tracts are not necessarily those with the highest sensitivity to cognitive functions and pathologies. Additionally, the hemisphere of the studied tract is often unreported, thus neglecting functional laterality and asymmetries. Finally, we demonstrate that tracts, as we define them, are not correlated with one, but multiple cognitive domains or pathologies. While our systematic review identified some methodological caveats, it also suggests that tract–function correlations might still be a promising tool in identifying biomarkers for precision medicine. They can characterize variations in brain anatomy, differences in functional organization, and predicts resilience and recovery in patients. Presented at #OHBM2022 in Glasgow, Scotland.
3 Methods to study connectional anatomy – Stephanie Forkel
20:27
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

3 Methods to study connectional anatomy – Stephanie Forkel

Brain Anatomy Workshop 2021 Full course programme: Day 1 was not recorded and will not be available #OnDemand. Day 2 was all about connectional anatomy and disconnection syndromes. This playlist has every talk from the day for a reply - a total of 5h of brain extravaganza. The sessions were recorded in the following order but each lecture can be watched independently: 1. Welcome – Stephanie Forkel 2. Theory: Brain Models – Michel Thiebaut de Schotten 3. Methods to study connectional anatomy – Stephanie Forkel (this talk) 4. Hands-on I: In vivo virtual dissections with tractography – Michel Thiebaut de Schotten 5. Application: Using tractography in the clinic – Stephanie Forkel 6. Hands-on II: In vivo virtual dissections with tractography – Stephanie Forkel 7. Methods: The do's and don’t's of tractography – Stephanie Forkel 8. Methods: Klingler-based tractography – Laurent Petit 9. Farewell and Q&A – Stephanie Forkel #neuroanatomy #neuroimaging #neuroscience #tractography #neurovariability 2021 registration via https://tinyurl.com/BrainAnatomyWorkshop -----CHAPTERS----- 0:00:00 - Intro 0:04:10 - Methods to study the human white matter 0:01:19 - Klingler post mortem dissections 0:13:42 - Tractography in vivo dissections
Tractography data visualisation using Trackvis & SurfIce (Guest lecture at UCL)
39:29
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

Tractography data visualisation using Trackvis & SurfIce (Guest lecture at UCL)

This tutorial was given as part of a Masters' programme at UCL London. Software packages used in this tutorial include - Trackvis (trackvis.org) - SufIce (https://www.nitrc.org/projects/surfice/) - MRIcron (https://www.nitrc.org/projects/mricron) All data is available from http://toolkit.bcblab.com/ & Stephanieforkel.com/opendata Find more tutorials on Chris Rorden's channel: Surfice scripting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wUVcAT-1zQ Surfice mesh rendering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6GltbDfXHw ----- Chapters ----- 0:00 - Intro 0:30 - Download workshop data 1:30 - Trackivs: open data 7:50 - Placing ROIs 19:16 - Save tract as trk 20:50 - Surfice 23:00 - Open trk from Trackvis 23:42 - Questions 23:42 - Transparency setting in Surfice 24:36 - Plotting scalar indices 25:02 - Adding an Atlas (here AICHA) 32:22 - Manually parcellating the brain in MRIcron
OHBM2022 Educational Course: Brain variability parcellations - Stephanie Forkel
13:31
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

OHBM2022 Educational Course: Brain variability parcellations - Stephanie Forkel

A large amount of variability exists across human brains; revealed initially on a small scale by postmortem studies and, more recently, on a larger scale with the advent of neuroimaging. Here we compared structural variability between human and macaque monkey brains using grey and white matter magnetic resonance imaging measures. The monkey brain was overall structurally as variable as the human brain, but variability had a distinct distribution pattern, with some key areas showing high variability. We also report the first evidence of a relationship between anatomical variability and evolutionary expansion in the primate brain. This suggests a relationship between variability and stability, where areas of low variability may have evolved less recently and have more stability, while areas of high variability may have evolved more recently and be less similar across individuals. We showed specific differences between the species in key areas, including the amount of hemispheric asymmetry in variability, which was left-lateralized in the human brain across several phylogenetically recent regions. This suggests that cerebral variability may be another useful measure for comparison between species and may add another dimension to our understanding of evolutionary mechanisms. Article discussed Croxson et al., 2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29045561 Forkel et al., 2022 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00429-021-02382-w Thiebaut de Schotten & Forkel, submitted Software www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl http://brainvisa.info http://brainvis.wustl.edu/ www.humanconnectome.org Human Data www.humanconnectome.org #OHBM2022 #BrainPFT
7 Methods: The do's and don’t's of tractography – Stephanie Forkel
24:10
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

7 Methods: The do's and don’t's of tractography – Stephanie Forkel

Brain Anatomy Workshop 2021 Full course programme: Day 1 was not recorded and will not be available #OnDemand. Day 2 was all about connectional anatomy and disconnection syndromes. This playlist has every talk from the day for a reply - a total of 5h of brain extravaganza. The sessions were recorded in the following order but each lecture can be watched independently: 1. Welcome – Stephanie Forkel 2. Theory: Brain Models – Michel Thiebaut de Schotten 3. Methods to study connectional anatomy – Stephanie Forkel 4. Hands-on I: In vivo virtual dissections with tractography – Michel Thiebaut de Schotten 5. Application: Using tractography in the clinic – Stephanie Forkel 6. Hands-on II: In vivo virtual dissections with tractography – Stephanie Forkel 7. Methods: The do's and don’t's of tractography – Stephanie Forkel 8. Methods: Klingler-based tractography – Laurent Petit 9. Farewell and Q&A – Stephanie Forkel #neuroanatomy #neuroimaging #neuroscience #tractography #neurovariability 2021 registration via https://tinyurl.com/BrainAnatomyWorkshop -----CHAPTERS----- 0:00 - Intro
Virtual tour through the brain - Guest Lecture at WITS, South Africa
01:10:22
Clinical Neuroanatomy Seminars

Virtual tour through the brain - Guest Lecture at WITS, South Africa

Masters of Cognitive Neuroscience Guest lecture 2021, attended by Wits Plus students from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. This lecture covers the basics of postmortem dissections in the first part. The second half is all about dissections in the living human brain and the clinical relevance of mapping the white matter connections in the brain. Organised and hosted by the wonderful Sahba Besharati, neuropsychologist and Senior Lecturer in cognitive neuroscience in the Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development at Wits. ----- Chapters ----- 0:00 - Intro 4:23 - Lecture Part 1: Post mortem dissections 4:50 - Lecture Part 2: In vivo dissections 49:17 - Lecture Part 3: Variability and clinical impact 55:50 - Q&A with the students
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