Niche Lab - Neuroimaging In Childhood

Marieke

Naam Marieke Langen
Functie Niche assistant professor

Introductie

Curriculum Vitae

In 1994, I started my studies in Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. After finishing the first year, I switched to Psychology. In 2001, I successfully completed my degree, specialising in Neuropsychology, with a thesis and fMRI study investigating cognitive functioning of the hippocampus. After working as a research assistant structural neuroimaging at the Department of Psychiatry of the UMC Utrecht for 17 months, I started as project co-ordinator for a non-governmental organisation in the field of developmental and international co-operation in January 2003. In May 2005 I returned to neuroscience and began my PhD project at NICHE, the neuroimaging lab at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, UMC Utrecht. From August 2008 until February 2009, I worked as a research associate at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College, London. In September 2009 I finished my PhD project and became a post-doctoral researcher. In May 2010 I have been appointed as assistant professor at NICHE.

 

Current Research Projects

My projects combine several imaging techniques (including structural MRI and DTI) with behavioral assessments (clinical interviews and neurocognitive tasks) to investigate neurobiological correlates in the etiology of autism. My projects aim to assess the development of autism over time by including longitudinal assessments.

I am particularly interested in the involvement of fronto-striatal circuitry in the repetitive and stereotyped behaviour, one of the core symptoms of autism.
Although repetitive behaviour symptoms often form a significant impairment for affected individuals, systematic study of the phenomenology and in particular the neurobiology of repetitive behaviour has been lacking.

In my PhD thesis (Repetitive behaviour in autism: Imaging pathways and trajectories, 22 December 2009), I address this gap by using neuroimaging techniques (structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and magnetisation transfer imaging) to investigate brain differences associated with repetitive behaviour in autism. I compared groups of individuals (children and adolescents, as well as adults) with and without autism and examined anatomical differences in specific structures and networks of the brain and related these to behavioural measurements. Furthermore, I explored the involvement of differences in developmental trajectories of these structures and networks in autism.

My studies demonstrate that corticostriatal grey and white matter follow altered developmental trajectories in autism when compared to controls, and implicate corticostriatal circuitry in the repetitive behaviour which characterises the disorder. In addition to the experimental work, my thesis includes two reviews on the neurobiology of repetitive behaviour. These theoretical studies emphasise the need for research strategies that take (1) the heterogeneity of autism, and (2) the etiologic overlap with other disorders into account.

In connection to the findings from my PhD project, current and future projects include investigating involvement of corticostriatal circuitry in children with autism using DTI, and longitudinal studies of both sMRI and DTI data in a large sample of children with autism.

 

For more information including contact details and a list of  publications: go to my webpage at the UMC Utrecht neuroimaging website: Marieke Langen.

Publicaties

Fronto-striatal circuitry and inhibitory control in autism: Findings from diffusion tensor imaging tractography The neurobiology of repetitive behavior: Of mice...The neurobiology of repetitive behavior: ...and menChanges in the developmental trajectories of striatum in autismCaudate nucleus is enlarged in high-functioning medication-naive subjects with autism