PhD conferral mr. Gerhard S. Drenthen, MSc.

Key words: epilepsy, myelin, brain networks, MRI

"Myelin and networks, Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Epilepsy"

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which the network of nerve cells in the brain has been altered, and possibly even affected. The white matter fibers that connect brain areas play an important role in this. Briefly, in this thesis existing methods have been further developed to quickly and accurately measure myelin levels in the brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Myelin is an important element of the white matter that ensures efficient and fast communication between the different brain areas. This method was applied to children with epilepsy and it was shown that epilepsy involves abnormalities in the myelin level.