Yessin Schoutens

  Faculty of Health, Medicine & Life Sciences | Bachelor Biomedical Sciences

The Effect of Sacral Neuromodulation on Functional Connectivity Between the Periaqueductal Gray and Pontine Micturition Center in Overactive Bladder Patients

Yessin's elevator pitch
The periaqueductal gray (PAG) is a brainstem hub for autonomic control, including urinary continence. Therapies like sacral neuromodulation (SNM) are thought to act by modulating PAG activity. Studying PAG functional subregions has been limited by analytic constraints. My thesis introduces a cluster-matching algorithm that overcomes these limitations, enabling PAG subregions to be matched across parcellations and aligned at the group level. The results of my thesis suggest that PAG activity is altered in overactive bladder (OAB) patients and that SNM modulates this activity. This offers a novel methodological framework and provides preliminary insights into both OAB etiology and SNM mechanisms.