Contribution to a book

Segmentation of 3D volumes with a large number of labels, small convoluted structures, and lack of contrast between various structural boundaries is a difficult task. While recent methodological advances across many segmentation tasks are dominated by 3D architectures, currently the strongest performing method for whole brain segmentation is FastSurferCNN, a 2.5D approach. [...]

Inflammasome biology has been implicated in several diseases that exhibit underlying inflammatory processes. Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are known for chronic neuroinflammation in the brain. [...]

This chapter provides an overview on the diagnostic utility of positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in neurology. PET is now providing essential imaging biomarkers for Alzheimer disease (AD), especially for its early detection and differentiation from other neurodegenerative diseases such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) [...]

Parkinson's disease (PD) was first described by the English physician James Parkinson in his work An Essay on the Shaking Palsy in 1817. This correlates well with the beginning of the industrial and chemical revolution in Europe during the late 18th and 19th centuries. [...]

Different regions and structures of both the peripheral and central nervous systems far beyond the substantia nigra pars compacta are affected by the underlying cellular pathology that eventually leads to the clinical onset of Parkinson's disease (PD). Based on the observation of a typical temporal and spatial order of progression with an onset long before the first clinical symptoms appear, Braak and coworkers developed a neuropathological staging model. [...]

Integrated care models have been internationally promoted as a priority in dementia because they have the potential to overcome fragmented health care systems. Supported by a political framework, dementia care networks have been created in Germany in recent years. [...]

Neuronal polarization is a crucial developmental process underlying the establishment of functional circuits in the nervous system. Following a terminal mitotic division, initially spherical cells undergo a dramatic transformation to become morphologically intricate neurons with convoluted dendritic trees and long axons that can transverse long distances to synaptic partners. [...]

The immune system is essential for maintenance of tissue homeostasis. This task requires that immune cells detect and respond to dyshomeostatic states (when homeostasis has broken down) that can occur during invasion of the host with pathogenic microbes, after sterile trauma of tissues or during metabolic derangements. [...]

The causal exclusion argument supports the notion that causation should be thought of as a purely low-level affair. Here we argue instead in favour of high-level causation as a natural and meaningful notion that may even be more useful than causation at more fundamental physical levels. [...]