The mechanisms of neurovascular coupling provide the critical link between neural activity and metabolic signatures of neural activity such as the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal that can be obtained with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI is a non-invasive method used primarily to study the function of the human brain in health and disease. It is the aim to elucidate the relationship between neural activity and the BOLD signal by simultaneously recording these signals in the primary visual cortex of the macaque monkey using various visual stimulation protocols. These different protocols may allow to gain an understanding of how changes in the neuronal activity levels affect neurovascular coupling. A better understanding of the BOLD signal in terms of its underlying neuronal states will have an important relevance for early diagnosis of e.g. neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Coordinator Prof. Dr. Gregor Rainer
Subproject 1		Subproject 2
Prof. Dr. Gregor Rainer Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics Spemannstraße 38                   D-72076 Tübingen		Prof. Dr. Klaus-Robert Müller Technische Universität Berlin                   Institut für Softwaretechnik und Theoretische Informatik                                     Franklinstraße 28/29              D-10587 Berlin