about me - Michiel Kleinnijenhuis

current pursuits:

I'm a postdoctoral researcher at FMRIB, Oxford, UK. In my research, I'm developing methods to measure the microstructure of the brain. We expect that with our improved methods and models will be able to address a range of questions that have been difficult to answer with existing techniques. Foremost, we would like to investigate which microstructural changes are involved in white matter plasticity (after learning a new motor skill, for example).

The techniques I focus on are diffusion MRI and susceptibility MRI. With diffusion MRI we can probe the movement of molecules through the brain, as they interact with cell membranes. Our aim is to derive quantities that capture tissue properties such as axonal density, diameter, direction and dispersion. With susceptibility MRI, we investigate the properties of the myelin sheet that surrounds most long-distance axons. I combine these MRI methods with other anatomical techniques (such as electron microscopy, polarized light imaging, and histology) to validate and interpret the MRI measures.

Doing research on the interface between physics and neuroscience as stimulating a job you can have. I believe that bridging the microscopic and macroscopic scales is one of the main undertakings neuroscience is faced with in the next decade (or so). The prospect of integration of explanations of brain function on multiple levels is one of my main drives.

bio:

I was born the 19th of August 1981 in Den Ham, The Netherlands spending my childhood in my place of birth. From 1993-1999, I did the Atheneum (secondary eductation) at CSG Het Noordik, Almelo. From there, I went to Saxion Hogeschool Enschede for my B.Sc in Applied Physics. My interest in physiology—the brain in particular, which was already aroused before commencing my studies, led me to choose the specialization Biomedical Physics. The internships at the University of Twente and the Medisch Spectrum Twente hospital reflected this preference. In the Biomedical Optics group of the UT, I worked on a system for optical mammography. At the Clinical Neurophysiology department of the MST, the assignment was on localizing epileptic foci from the electroencephalogram.

This proved to be an excellent preparation for starting an M.Sc in Cognitive Neuroscience after obtaining my bachelor’s in 2003. In the track Perception, Action and Consiousness I found a challenge to develop a brain-computer interface, which was the topic of my master’s thesis. This project was executed at BraInquiry, the small company where I stayed on as a psychophysiological researcher until 2007, working on projects on peak-performance in sports, heart rate measurement, and neurofeedback software development.

After trying my hand at reliability engineering in multinational industry at NXP, I returned to academia in 2009 to take up my old passion for brain research. I started a PhD at the Department of Anatomy of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre under supervision of Anne-Marie van Cappellen van Walsum and Dirk Ruiter. As the research topic was diffusion MRI of connectional neuroanatomy, I was embedded in David Norris’ group (MR Techniques in Brain Function) at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, co-supervised by Markus Barth. This thesis you have before you is fruit of this collaboration.

As of December 2013, I work in the Physics group of FMRIB, Oxford, as a postdoctoral researcher. In the group of Karla Miller, I investigate microstructural tissue properties, focusing on the development of novel MR methods to detect and quantify plasticity of the white matter.