title: Uncovering brain-heart information through advanced signal and image processing.
abstract: Through their dynamical interplay, the brain and the heart ensure fundamental homeostasis and mediate a number of physiological functions as well as their disease-related aberrations. Although a vast number of ad hoc analytical and computational tools have been recently applied to the non-invasive characterization of brain and heart dynamic functioning, little attention has been devoted to combining information to unveil the interactions between these two physiological systems. This theme issue collects contributions from leading experts dealing with the development of advanced analytical and computational tools in the field of biomedical signal and image processing. It includes perspectives on recent advances in 7 T magnetic resonance imaging as well as electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram and cerebrovascular flow processing, with the specific aim of elucidating methods to uncover novel biological and physiological correlates of brain-heart physiology and physiopathology.
authors.affiliation: Research Center E. Piaggio, and Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA g.valenza@ieee.org.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6574-1879
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valenza
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', 00133 Rome, Italy A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging (MGH), Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Toschi
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Department of Electronics, Informatics and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barbieri
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: advanced signal and image processing; brain–heart interaction; brain–heart physiology and physiopathology