Opening comments

• Christine Bastin (GIGA CRC in vivo imaging)
• Gilles Vandewalle (GIGA-CRC-IVI)

Room: Academic Hall

Keynote: Basic and advanced knee MRI

• Pieter Van Dyck (UAntwerp)

Room: Academic Hall Introduction by Gilles Vandewalle In this talk, Pieter will provide an overview of the current techniques forclinical knee and will describe past and recent developments in the field,highlighting the challenges in the path to future implementation in clinicalpractice. Topics include (but are not limited to) rapid knee MRI clinicalprotocols, 3D knee MRI, cartilage compositional biomarkers, imaging oforthopedic implants, and developments in short-echo-time (UTE)acquisitions to evaluate rapidly decaying T2 species abundant inligaments, tendons, menisci, and bone (ZTE, bone MRI).

Data Blitz - Selection of submitted abstracts Room: Academic Hall 1 slide & 1 minute per abstract, managed by Denis Patino Rana and Christophe Phillips **List of 16 abstracts** and their number * **2** Short-term caloric restriction or resveratrol supplementation alters large-scale brain network connectivity in male and female rats * **4** Brain representations of numerosity across the senses and presentation format * **9** Stress in pain (STRAIN) MRI protocol: Neural correlates of pain-stress relationship * **12** Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation to promote neuroplasticity and memory in ageing: a multimodal approach * **14** The use of Preclinical Pharmacological MRI to Investigate Pathway-specific Dopaminergic Function * **16** Testing the compensation versus differentiation theories by modulating excitability in the motor cortex using non-invasive brain stimulation (tDCS) * **20** Impact of Light Illuminance on Locus Coeruleus Activity during an auditory Emotional Task: Insights from High-Resolution MRI Imaging * **21** Externally aligned representation of visual and Tactile Motion Directions in hMT+/V5 and further dorsal stream regions. * **23** Contribution of quantitative MRI in the preclinical detection of early neurodegeneration of fronto-temporal dementia in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis * **25** Bridging electrophysiology and neuroimaging to understand the neuronal correlates of spontaneous thinking and alertness during task-engagement * **27** AURA: Building ‘A User Repository of Artifacts for Perfusion Imaging’ for Quality Control * **28** Habitual napping in ageing; sex-specific associations with hypothalamic integrity * **29** Pre-clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s disease: Locus coeruleus, sleep, genetics and cognition * **31** FRACTALz- Fractal Dynamics as a Diagnostic Tool in Alzheimer’s Disease * **36** The ARIANES Initiative: Integrating 3T and 7T MRI for clinical research * **26** Mood induction by reliving memories – impact on mood state and cerebral perfusion

Scientific session - Oral presentations Room: Academic Hall 5 speakers, 12 minutes each, managed by Aurora Gasparello and Laurent Lamalle **Speakers:** * **Mostafa Mahdipour** (Research Centre Jülich), *"Predicting individual grey matter health from the individual expotype: the role of body health and related life style factors"* * **Greet Vanderlinden** (KU Leuven), *"Fibre density and cross-section associate with hallmark pathology in early Alzheimer’s disease Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Department of Imaging and Pathology"* * **Robin E. Heemels** (UHasselt & KULeuven), *"The Impact of Aging and Metabolites on Regional Differences in Cerebral Blood Flow within the Occipital and Sensorimotor Cortices"* * **Claudia Schrauwen** (UAntwerp & UNamur), *"Longitudinal in vivo assessment of tissue alterations and synaptic density as non-invasive biomarkers for traumatic spinal cord injury"* * **Antoine Jacquemin** (ULiège), *"Effects of Tissue-Specific Smoothing Approaches on Statistical Analysis in Quantitative MRI Antoine"*

Keynote: Mapping the Rusting Brain: Iron-SensitiveMRI Biomarkers for Neurodegeneration

• Evgeniya Kirilina (Max Planck Institut - Leipzig)

Room: Academic Hall Introduction by Mikhail Zubkov Elevated brain iron levels are a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, includingAlzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Although MRI provides a non-invasive means ofassessing brain iron using contrasts like quantitative susceptibility and transverserelaxation rates, these biomarkers often lack specificity. To address this, Evgeniya’swork integrated multiple iron-sensitive MRI parameters with biophysical models and3D quantitative histology to understand iron-induced contrast mechanisms. Thisapproach enables the development of cell-specific MRI biomarkers. For this talk,Evgeniya will discuss a key application of this work: mapping density and iron loadof dopaminergic neurons for the early detection of Parkinson's disease.

Closing comments & Awards

• Koen Cuypers (UHasselt)
• Patricia Clement (UGent)

Room: Academic Hall