Abstract

Most brain diseases and disorders are characterized by alterations in functioning at multiple scales and in various modalities, which have mostly been studied separately up to now. In for example glioma, the most commonly occurring type of primary brain tumor, cellular hyperexcitability around the tumor is induced by excess glutamate secretion, which impacts local circuitry. At the large-scale network level, patients often display increased local connectivity and loss of integrative connectivity, in part depending on the modality used to construct networks. Finally, patients’ symptoms range from cognitive deficits and seizures to fatigue and depression, which are all interrelated. In this talk, I will discuss our recent multiscale and multimodal studies in different brain diseases (e.g. glioma, multiple sclerosis, temporal lobe epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease) and healthy controls. Multiscale approaches may ultimately allow for better understanding of the multidimensional nature of brain disease and may inform more targeted treatments thereof.