Serge A.R.B. Rombouts is professor of methods of cognitive neuroimaging at the Department of Radiology at the Leiden University Medical Center and the Institute of Psychology at the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences. His grants include NWO-ZonMW Veni, Vidi and Vici grants.

More information about Serge Rombouts

Serge A.R.B. Rombouts is professor of methods of cognitive neuroimaging at the Department of Radiology at the Leiden University Medical Center and the Institute of Psychology at the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences. His grants include NWO-ZonMW Veni, Vidi and Vici grants.

Methods of Cognitive Neuroimaging

In neuroscience we want to understand how the brain works and how brain functions change in brain disorders.

Rombouts’ research is on the topic of cognitive neuroimaging. Cognitive neuroimaging is about associating the structure or dynamics visible on brain scans with processes such as thinking and learning. This applies to both normal functioning brains and brain disorders.

An important part of cognitive neuroimaging is the imaging of brain activity using functional MRI (FMRI).

Rombouts studies these innovative brain scan technologies for applications in early diagnosis of various neurological and psychiatric disorders, including dementia, and the visualization of medication effects on brain activity.

Currently it is often difficult to make diagnoses, especially in the early stages of brain disorders such as dementia. Brain scan technology continues to develop. These developments offer new opportunities to improve diagnostics. Scans become more accurate, faster, and are able to depict brain activity. New analysis techniques make it possible to make better use of the information contained in a scan. The aim of his research is to use new techniques of brain scans so that they can help with better (early) diagnoses, drug development and monitoring treatment effects.

Academic career

Serge A.R.B. Rombouts studied physics at Utrecht University. He obtained his PhD at VU University Amsterdam on 10 February 1999. The title of his thesis is 'Functional MRI. Studies of the primary visual cortex and the memory system with reference to Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis’. After his PhD, Rombouts specialized further in the field of MRI brain scans at the VU Medical Center. He was appointed professor of methods of cognitive neuroimaging at Leiden University in December 2009. On 1 April 2011, he gave his inaugural lecture entitled ‘hersenactiviteit in beeld'.

See also his publications.

Publications