Daniel Handwerker

Contact Information Daniel Handwerker, Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Radiology, Box 0946 University of California, San Francisco 185 Berry St, Suite 350 San Francisco, CA 94107 Phone: 415-353-9426 Fax: 415-353-9425 dan.handwerker_at_radiology_dot_ucsf_dot_edu

Research Interests

I am a postdoctoral fellow working with Roland Henry in the Center for Molecular and Functional Imaging at UCSF. I am working on methods to measure signal variability and study neural connectivity using fMRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). My clinical collaborations include the study of neurodegeneration in people with mild cognitive impairment using antisaccade and language tasks. I am also examining the benefits of combined fMRI and DTI for preneurosurgical planning. As part of this project, I am collborating with multiple research groups and neurosurgeons to compare preoperative fMRI, DTI, and MEG to intraoperative electrocorticography (ECoG) and electrical stimulation mapping.

My long-term research goal is to make human functional neuroimaging, particularly functional MRI, an important and practical tool for clinicians and neuroscientists. While fMRI already has a relevant place in both the clinic and lab, the signal's noise, our lack of understanding of the neural source of the fMRI signal, and assumptions behind existing data analysis methods limit the practical applications of fMRI. My doctoral and postdoctoral research attempts to address some of these weaknesses.

Publications

Handwerker, D.A., Gazzaley, A., Inglis, B., D'Esposito, M. "Reducing vascular variability of fMRI data across aging populations using a breath holding task" Human Brain Mapping (in press)

Fuhrmann Alpert, G., Sun, F.T, Handwerker, D.A., D'Esposito, M., Knight, R.T., "Information Analysis of Event-Related BOLD Responses: Exploring Spatio-temporal Patterns of Brain Activations." Neuroimage 34 (4) 1545-1561.

Handwerker, D.A., Ollinger, J.M., D'Esposito, M., 2004. "Variation of BOLD hemodynamic responses across brain regions and subjects and their effects on statistical analyses." Neuroimage 21 (4), 1639-1651.

Collaborators