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BRAIN Lab › Team › Norman Scheel
Norman Scheel, PhD

Principal Investigator

Norman Scheel, PhD

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Michigan State University
  • Director, Cognitive Imaging Research Center (CIRC)
  • Principal Investigator, BRAIN Lab

ORCID ↗

About

Computational neuroscientist at the intersection of medicine, computer science, and neuroscience

Norman Scheel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at Michigan State University, Director of the Cognitive Imaging Research Center (CIRC), and Principal Investigator of the BRAIN Lab. His research develops computational and artificial-intelligence methods that turn multimodal brain imaging into meaningful biomarkers of aging, resilience, and neurodegeneration.

Trained as a computer scientist and bioinformatician, he earned his doctorate (Dr. rer. nat., magna cum laude) in computer science and bioinformatics with an application in computational neuroscience from the University of Lübeck in Germany. His work centers on resting-state functional MRI, dimensional complexity, and the temporal decomposition of brain signals. He also integrates large, heterogeneous datasets (including ADNI, HCP, rrAD, and UM-MAP), drawing on machine and deep learning, physiological signal processing, and dynamical-systems approaches to brain function.

As Principal Investigator, he leads projects funded by the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center to clinically and biologically validate Dimensional Complexity as a novel resting-state fMRI biomarker of cognitive resilience, and he serves as Co-Investigator on large NIH-funded clinical trials linking cardiovascular health to brain aging. At MSU he directs CIRC and mentors trainees across engineering and medicine, from PhD candidates to medical students in the Colleges of Human and Osteopathic Medicine.

Research interests

Computational & AI neuroimaging Resting-state fMRI Dimensional complexity Biomarkers of neurodegeneration Cardiovascular–brain interactions Deep-learning MRI segmentation Physiological noise modeling Multimodal MRI / PET integration Big-data neuroimaging Brain aging & resilience

Education

  • 2017

    Dr. rer. nat. / PhD, magna cum laude Computer Science & Bioinformatics (Computational Neuroscience), University of Lübeck, Germany. Dissertation: “The brain at rest: noise or signal?”

  • 2011

    Diploma in Informatics (Dipl.-Inf.) Combined B.S./M.S. in Computer Science, Medical Informatics, and Medicine, University of Lübeck, Germany.

Appointments

  • 2024–present

    Director, CIRC Cognitive Imaging Research Center, Michigan State University.

  • 2023–present

    Assistant Professor Department of Radiology, Michigan State University.

  • 2018–2023

    Postdoctoral Research Associate Department of Radiology, Michigan State University.

  • 2017–2018

    Postdoctoral Research Associate Department of Neurology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck, Germany.

Funding

Selected grants

  • 2026–2030 · PI

    Dimensional Complexity as a Biomarker for Resilience in Aging and Dementia (DC-RAD) NIH / NIA R01AG102936 (under review).

  • 2023–2026 · PI

    Temporal determinants of functional MRI and their relation to structural connectivity in MCI/AD Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Center (MADC).

  • 2022–2025 · PI

    Dimensional Complexity of fMRI: a new marker for cognitive states and MCI/AD progression Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Center (MADC).

  • 2022–2027 · Co-I

    Impact of Intensive Treatment of Systolic Blood Pressure on Brain Perfusion, Amyloid and Tau (IPAT) NIH / NIA R01AG076660.

  • 2023–2026 · Co-I

    Biomarkers to Track Interventions that Delay Dementia Onset in the rrAD Trial NIH / NIA RF1AG084134.

  • 2025–2027 · Co-I

    Whole-brain, PET-based molecular neuroimaging of fos expression NIH / NINDS R21NS142826.

Publications

Selected publications

  • Scheel N, Fernandez Z, Baker J, et al. A Functional Resting-State Network Atlas Based on 420 Older Adults with Hypertension. Human Brain Mapping (under review); bioRxiv, 2025. doi:10.1101/2025.11.26.690831
  • Deng J, Sun B, Scheel N, et al. Causalized convergent cross-mapping and its approximate equivalence with directed information in causality analysis. PNAS Nexus, 2024. doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad422
  • Scheel N, Keller JN, Binder EF, et al. Evaluation of noise regression techniques in resting-state fMRI studies using data of 434 older adults. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2022. doi:10.3389/fnins.2022.1006056
  • Scheel N, Tarumi T, Tomoto T, Cullum CM, Zhang R, Zhu DC. Resting-state functional MRI signal fluctuation amplitudes are correlated with brain amyloid-β deposition in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 2021. doi:10.1177/0271678X211064846
  • Scheel N, Franke E, Münte TF, Madany Mamlouk A. Dimensional Complexity of the Resting Brain in Healthy Aging, Using a Normalized MPSE. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2018. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00451
  • Scheel N, Essenwanger A, Münte TF, Heldmann M, Krämer UM, Madany Mamlouk A. Selection of seeds for resting-state fMRI-based prediction of individual brain maturity. Informatik aktuell (Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin), 2015. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-46224-9_64
  • Scheel N, Chang C, Madany Mamlouk A. The importance of physiological noise regression in high temporal resolution fMRI. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (ICANN 2014), 2014. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-11179-7_104

Full Publications on ORCiD ↗

Honors & awards

  • 2023

    MSU AgeAlive Research in Aging Award For leadership in aging-related research.

  • 2023

    MSU Postdoctoral Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award

  • 2022

    Best Poster Award, MADRC Beyond Amyloid Research Symposium

  • 2011–2014

    PhD stipend, German Universities Excellence Initiative (DFG)

Service & memberships

  • 2024–present

    Advisory Board Member MSU Center for Imaging and Image-Guided Therapies (CIIGT).

  • Editor

    Review Editor Frontiers in Physics (Medical Physics & Imaging); Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence in Radiology.

  • Member

    OHBM · ISTAART · OCNS Organization for Human Brain Mapping; Int'l Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment; Org. for Computational Neurosciences.

  • Reviewer

    Ad hoc peer review NeuroImage, Human Brain Mapping, J. Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, Neurobiology of Aging, J. Alzheimer's Disease, and others.

Toolbox

Methods & technical expertise

Programming & computing

Python, MATLAB, Julia, C/C++, Java, and Bash. High-performance computing with SLURM workflows, CUDA / GPU acceleration, and containerized, reproducible pipelines.

Neuroimaging & machine learning

SPM, FSL, AFNI, MRtrix, ANTs, and FreeSurfer for multimodal MRI, PET, and diffusion analysis; machine and deep learning spanning PCA/ICA, SVM, graph analysis, CNNs, U-Net, and Transformers.