Working Groups
Working Group 1: Brainstem Mapping
Focus: Atlases & post-mortem validation
Key Tasks
Provide an overview of available brainstem atlases, improve access to atlas resources, and develop online training materials and best-practice guidance
Exchange with clinicians on clinical post-mortem data and identify which structures should be prioritised for new mapping efforts, leading to roadmap and data-driven publications
Exchange with imaging and analysis experts on new MRI sequences and improved segmentation approaches, contributing to roadmap papers and future research direction
Working Group 2: Brainstem Imaging
Focus: Best practices & methods development Brainstem MRI
Key Tasks
Provide an overview of available MRI sequences for the brainstem, including comparisons of sequence performance, and develop online resources and best-practice consensus papers
Promote and support the use of recommended MRI sequences across participating sites
Advance quantitative imaging and collaborate with the mapping and analyses Working Groups on the development of new MRI sequences
Working Group 3: Brainstem Analyses
Focus: Best practices & methods development in segmentation & data processing
Key Tasks
Provide an analysis overview covering noise correction and segmentation methods, and develop online resources, training materials, and best-practice consensus papers
Integrate recommended analysis methods into existing toolboxes to support broader accessibility and harmonisation
Conduct analyses linking genes to specific brainstem structures using existing datasets and best-practice segmentations, and exchange with the mapping and imaging Working Groups on new segmentation developments
Working Group 4: Brainstem Function
Focus: overview & experimental paradigms brainstem function - humans & animals
Key Tasks
Provide an overview of current knowledge on brainstem functions and recommended experimental paradigms, and develop online resources, training materials, and best-practice consensus papers.
Support meta-analysis papers on the contribution of brainstem structures to cognitive, autonomic, and other functions.
Exchange with clinicians and methods experts to identify new targets for future investigations of brainstem function.
Working Group 5: Brainstem Clinic
Focus: overview brainstem in clinical conditions & new targets for therapies
Key Tasks
Provide an overview of what is known about altered brainstem structure and function in clinical conditions and develop diagnostic recommendations, online resources, training materials, and consensus papers.
Prepare an overview of existing multi-site clinical cohorts for researchers interested in conducting clinical studies, and exchange with clinical and methods experts on methodological developments needed to improve applicability in clinical contexts, leading to roadmap papers.
Facilitate exchange between function and clinic perspectives to identify new targets for therapeutic interventions and develop corresponding roadmap papers.