[POTENTIAL CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF RESTING-STATE-FMRI IN NEUROLOGY]

Resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) is a non-invasive technique allowing to characterize brain functional connectivity. Blood oxygenation, the basis of the fMRI signal, fluctuates in the resting brain. These fluctuations have been shown to correlate between anatomically connected regions, thus allowing to examine functional connectivity between local and distal brain regions. The ability to identify functional networks, and to characterize their inter- and intra-connectivity is the basis for the development of useful clinical applications, which are especially relevant for neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases and disorders, in which network organization is altered. In this article, I will describe this method, review results obtained with it and demonstrate its potential through the consideration of findings from Alzheimer's disease research.