Sandra Hanekamp

University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Graduate Student

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I am currently working as a PhD student in the Visual Neuroscience Research Group of the Laboratory for Experimental Ophthalmology (LEO) to study neurodegeneration related to glaucoma, an age-related neurodegenerative eye disease.

By using several Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques, I aim to unravel why neurodegeneration in the brain and specifically the visual pathway structures of patients with glaucoma occurs.

By doing so, I intend to: i) gain a better understanding of the disease’s origin, ii) shed light on the mechanism of neurodegeneration, and iii) improve glaucoma treatment (i.e. does it make sense to incorporate treatment to prevent and treat brain changes).

For any questions do not hesitate to contact me:
✉ sandrahanekamp@gmail.com
Supervisors: Frans W. Cornelissen, Branislava Ćurčić-Blake, and Nomdo M. Jansonius

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brainlife.io: A decentralized and open source cloud platform to support neuroscience research

arXiv (Cornell University), Jun 8, 2023

Contribution. S.H. implemented the brainlife.io services. B.C. wrote the data analysis code, perf... more

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Cortical grey matter changes in functional paresis

Differences and similarities in behavioural characteristics between children diagnosed with APD and children with SLI, dyslexia, ADHD or autism

Background: Children with auditory processing disorders (APD) seem to have difficulties in audito... more Background: Children with auditory processing disorders (APD) seem to have difficulties in auditory functioning, and with cognitive, language and reading tasks. However, it is not clear whether the behavioural characteristic of children with APD are distinctive from the behavioural characteristics of children with another developmental disorder, like specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Aim: The aim of this study was to determine which characteristics overlap between children with APD versus SLI, dyslexia, ADHD, or ASD.

Same or different

Bedpostx

The Multi-Center Brain Glaucoma and Monocular Blindness Data Set

Neurodegeneration of the optic radiations and corpus callosum in Normal-Tension Glaucoma

Perception, 2015

White matter alterations in glaucoma and monocular blindness differ outside the visual system

Scientific Reports

The degree to which glaucoma has effects in the brain beyond the eye and the visual pathways is u... more The degree to which glaucoma has effects in the brain beyond the eye and the visual pathways is unclear. To clarify this, we investigated white matter microstructure (WMM) in 37 tracts of patients with glaucoma, monocular blindness, and controls. We used brainlife.io for reproducibility. White matter tracts were subdivided into seven categories ranging from those primarily involved in vision (the visual white matter) to those primarily involved in cognition and motor control. In the vision tracts, WMM was decreased as measured by fractional anisotropy in both glaucoma and monocular blind subjects compared to controls, suggesting neurodegeneration due to reduced sensory inputs. A test–retest approach was used to validate these results. The pattern of results was different in monocular blind subjects, where WMM properties increased outside the visual white matter as compared to controls. This pattern of results suggests that whereas in the monocular blind loss of visual input might pr...

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Non-invasive neuromodulation as a new therapeutic strategy in the management of functional somatic symptoms

Objective A large proportion of medical symptoms remain unexplained and inadequate medical manage... more Objective A large proportion of medical symptoms remain unexplained and inadequate medical management is the result of this. These unexplained symptoms include functional neurological symptoms, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome and other symptoms such as chronic pain, tinnitus and irritable bowel syndrome. Due to the absence of an aetiological framework there are currently no curing and disorder-specific treatments or medical guidelines. Here we review the evidence on an upcoming therapeutic option, non-invasive neuromodulation, as a method of treatment for functional somatic symptoms. Methods A systematic search of the literature was performed with a specific search string. The resulting hits were screened on the inclusion criteria and after full text reading a summary was made of the remaining studies. Results Neuromodulation as a treatment option for unexplained symptoms is under investigation in multiple medical disciplines. While in some symptom categories such as un...

Bridging Social Sciences and AI for Understanding Child Behaviour

Child behaviour is a topic of wide scientific interest among many different disciplines, includin... more Child behaviour is a topic of wide scientific interest among many different disciplines, including social and behavioural sciences and artificial intelligence (AI). In this workshop, we aimed to connect researchers from these fields to address topics such as the usage of AI to better understand and model child behavioural and developmental processes, challenges and opportunities for AI in large-scale child behaviour analysis and implementing explainable ML/AI on sensitive child data. The workshop served as a successful first step towards this goal and attracted contributions from different research disciplines on the analysis of child behaviour. This paper provides a summary of the activities of the workshop and the accepted papers and abstracts.

Grey matter biased imaging using dual inversion-recovery improves grey matter segmentation over standard T1-weighted imaging for voxel-based morphometry

ABSTRACT Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) can be used to compare grey matter volumes across differen... more ABSTRACT Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) can be used to compare grey matter volumes across different groups of participants. Current methods rely on T1 scans to estimate grey matter volume. Here, we investigated if grey matter biased imaging by using a dual-inversion recovery (DIR) sequence could facilitate VBM. A higher tissue contrast for grey matter may improve the performance of the algorithms used in VBM, potentially resulting in a more precise and sensitive segmentation of grey matter. The brains of 12 healthy participants (mean age of 63 years, 5 females) were scanned with a 3 Tesla MR system and using T1 and DIR sequences. For segmentation of grey matter we used VBM in the framework of Statistical Parametric Mapping 8 (SPM8) by using the DARTEL toolbox (Ashburner, 2007, NeuroImage, 38, 95-113). We found significant differences in grey matter probability between T1-weighted and grey matter biased images. In segmented DIR images, higher grey matter probability was assigned throughout the entire cortex. Furthermore, in the basal nuclei – areas known to be difficult to segment in T1-weighted images –a sharper distinction between grey and white matter was revealed by visual inspection. Our results imply that DIR imaging provides a more accurate representation of cortical grey matter than T1-weighted imaging. We propose that grey mater biased imaging may therefore serve to improve grey matter segmentation. This may be important specifically in studies into morphological changes following ocular disease (Hernowo et al. 2013, Cortex. 1-12) or studies which depend on defining visual areas to perform an accurate retinotopy.

2nd ICMI Workshop on Bridging Social Sciences and AI for Understanding Child Behaviour

Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Multimodal Interaction

Child behavior is a topic of great scientific interest across a wide range of disciplines, includ... more Child behavior is a topic of great scientific interest across a wide range of disciplines, including social and behavioral sciences, as well as artificial intelligence (AI). The first workshop had a significant impact, and in this workshop, we aimed to bring together researchers from these fields to discuss topics such as using AI to better understand and model child behavioral and developmental processes, challenges and opportunities for AI in large-scale child behavior analysis, and implementing explainable ML/AI on sensitive child data. The workshop was a successful second step toward this objective, attracting contributions from many academic fields on child behavior analysis. This document summarizes the workshop's events as well as the accepted papers and abstracts. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; • Applied computing → Law, social and behavioral sciences.

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White matter alterations in glaucoma and vision-deprived brains differ outside the visual system

The degree to which glaucoma has effects beyond the eye –in the brain– is unclear. We investigate... more The degree to which glaucoma has effects beyond the eye –in the brain– is unclear. We investigated white matter microstructure (WMM) alterations in 37 tracts of patients with glaucoma, monocular blindness and controls. We used reproducible methods and the advanced cloud computing platform brainlife.io. White matter tracts were subdivided into seven categories ranging from primarily involved in vision (the visual white matter) to primarily involved in cognition and motor control. WMM in both glaucoma and monocular blind subjects was lower than controls in the visual white matter, suggesting neurodegenerative mechanisms due to reduced sensory inputs. In glaucoma participants WMM differences from controls decreased outside the visual white matter. A test-retest validation approach was used to validate these results. The pattern of results was different in monocular blind participants, where WMM properties increased outside the visual white matter as compared to controls. The pattern of...

The large‐scale structural connectome of task‐specific focal dystonia

Human Brain Mapping

Sexual Dimorphism Within Brain Regions Controlling Speech Production

Frontiers in Neuroscience

Same or Different

Ear and Hearing

Neurodegeneration beyond the primary visual pathways in a population with a high incidence of normal-pressure glaucoma

Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists), 2016

Glaucoma is the most common age-related neurodegenerative eye disease in western society. It is a... more Glaucoma is the most common age-related neurodegenerative eye disease in western society. It is an insidious disease that, when untreated or detected too late, leads inevitably to blindness. An outstanding issue is whether glaucoma should be considered exclusively an eye disease or also a brain disease. To further examine it, we used Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) to study white matter integrity in a Japanese glaucoma population. This population has a very high incidence of normal-pressure glaucoma, in which optic nerve damage occurs in the absence of the elevated eye pressure that characterises the more common form of glaucoma. We performed DTI in 30 participants with normal-pressure glaucoma and 21 age-matched healthy controls. We used voxel-wise tract-based spatial statistics to compare fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity of the white matter of the brain between patients and control group. Whole-brain and region of interest-based analyses served to find associations betwee...

Structural brain MRI studies in eye diseases: are they clinically relevant? A review of current findings

Acta Ophthalmologica, 2015

Grey matter biased imaging using dual inversion-recovery improves grey matter segmentation over standard T1-weighted imaging for voxel-based morphometry

Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) can be used to compare grey matter volumes across different groups ... more Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) can be used to compare grey matter volumes across different groups of participants. Current methods rely on T1 scans to estimate grey matter volume. Here, we investigated if grey matter biased imaging by using a dual-inversion recovery (DIR) sequence could facilitate VBM. A higher tissue contrast for grey matter may improve the performance of the algorithms used in VBM, potentially resulting in a more precise and sensitive segmentation of grey matter. The brains of 12 healthy participants (mean age of 63 years, 5 females) were scanned with a 3 Tesla MR system and using T1 and DIR sequences. For segmentation of grey matter we used VBM in the framework of Statistical Parametric Mapping 8 (SPM8) by using the DARTEL toolbox (Ashburner, 2007, NeuroImage, 38, 95-113). We found significant differences in grey matter probability between T1-weighted and grey matter biased images. In segmented DIR images, higher grey matter probability was assigned throughout the...

Structural brain MRI studies in eye diseases: are they clinically relevant? A review of current findings

Acta Ophthalmologica, 2015

Sandra Hanekamp

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