H2020Individual fellowship2021–2023

INITIATE · Injury profiles and brain development after mild traumatic brain injury in children: An individualised and longitudinal approach

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2021-04-01 → 2023-03-31
EU contribution
€162,806
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Injury profiles and brain development after mild traumatic brain injury in children: An individualised and longitudinal approach

Paediatric mild traumatic brain injury (pmTBI) is a very common brain disorder that affects the brain during peak development. Its consequences are so variable and complex that the current “one size fits all” approach lacks the precision needed for individual prognosis, and targeted therapy of pmTBI. INITIATE aimed to identify the individual profile of injury and to evaluate changes in brain development following mTBI in children using advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and individualised longitudinal statistical analyses. This MSCA fellowship has been early terminated after 7 months duration because the experienced researcher has been appointed as young researcher at the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria). Even shorter than planned, this MSCA followship allowed me to fully develop as an independent researcher and to be ready to lead my own team in the field of paediatric TBI and brain development. The fellowship allowed me to strengthen and broaden my expertise in longitudinal analysis to brain development, as well as enable me to further improve my qualities of independent researcher. In addition, the 2-month secondment at the University of Oslo (Norway) allowed me to collaborate with researcher from different disciplines and universities, and to experience new research environment and culture.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Paediatric mild traumatic brain injury (pmTBI) is a very common brain disorder that affects the brain during important developmental changes. The transition between childhood and adolescence (8-16 years of age) is characterised by profound changes in the brain structure and functioning. At this age period, the injury hits the still-developing brain regions underlying emotion, cognition, behaviour, and socialisation, and can result in significant long-term impairment in these functional domains.Each pmTBI is unique based on the individuality of brain injury (i.e., location and magnitude of injury) that is superimposed on the individuality of brain development (i.e., trajectory varies between children). However, the current “one size fits all” approach that consider all children with mTBI as a homogenous group, lacks the precision needed to capture these individualities. INITIATE proposes to combine, for the first-time, advanced neuroimaging techniques with an individualised and longitudinal approach to characterise the individual profile of injury and the changes in brain development following mTBI in children.This innovative approach will allow to capture the individuality of each child with mTBI and thereby to better understand the variability and complexity of the consequences of pmTBI. INITIATE findings have the potential to open new directions in research of pmTBI, and to move the field to a more individualised approach, a first step toward personalised medicine of pmTBI in the long-term.Furthermore, this fellowship will enable me to gain extensive knowledge in paediatric medicine, advanced neuroimaging and developmental neuroscience, thereby giving me the opportunity to develop into an independent researcher in the field of TBI and brain development and to lead my own research my own research group and to conduct high quality research at a European University.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · PlaneggCoordinatorGermany

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union