Dr Batalle is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and the Centre for Developing Brain at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, contributing to both the Developing Human Connectome and AIMS-2-TRIALS projects.

Both a telecommunications engineer and a neuroscientist by training, Dr Batalle uses mathematical tools and computational models to study the emergence of brain organisation during early development and how subtle alterations in key developmental processes lead to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD. He is particularly interested in the use of whole-brain computational models, graph theory, signal processing and machine learning tools to characterise brain networks and find early markers associated to atypical neurodevelopmental trajectories.

Research interests

• Structural and functional brain networks
• Dynamic functional connectivity
• Graph theory and computational models
• Interaction of clinical, social and genetic risk factors with brain development

Research groups

• Computational Developmental Neuroscience (CoDe-Neuro)

Teaching

Module leader:

• 7PCFLDST: MSC in Clinical Neurodevelopmental Science: Dissertation Module
• 5MBBS203SSC46: MBBS SSC: Applied programming in medicine: an introduction to neuroimaging

Teaching:

• 7MIGEP42: Medical Imaging Biology
• 7MRWWC01: Fundamentals of Women and Children’s Health
• 7MRI0030: Medical Imaging in Clinical Applications

Publications

Google Scholar:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZJYE5x8AAAAJ&hl=en

Pure publications:

https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/dafnis-batalle(594a5a66-51aa-421c-8863-39c245d3d93c)/publications.html

Selected publications:

Ní Bhroin M, Seada SA, Bonthrone AF, Kelly C, Christiaens D, Schuh A, Pietsch M, Hutter J, Tournier J-D, Cordero-Grande L, Rueckert D, Hajnal JV, Pusharajah K, Simpson J, Edwards AD, Rutherford MA, Counsell SJ, Batalle D; Reduced structural connectivity in cortico-striatal-thalamic network in neonates with congenital heart disease; NeuroImge:Clinical, 2020; 28:102423

Gale-Grant O, Christiaens D, Cordero-Grande L, Chew A, Falconer S, Makropoulos A, Harper N, Price AN, Hutter J, Hughes E, Victor S, Counsel SJ, Rueckert D, Hajnal JV, Edwards AD, O’Muircheartaigh J*, Batalle D*, Parental Age Effects on Neonatal White Matter Development. Neuroimage: Clinical, 2020; 20, 102283.

Batalle D, O’Muircheartaigh J, Makropoulos A, Kelly CJ, Dimitrova R, Hughes E, Hajnal JV, Zhang H, Alexander DC, Edwards AD, Counsell SJ; Different patterns of cortical maturation before and after 38 weeks gestational age demonstrated by diffusion MRI in vivo; Neuroimage, 2019, 185, pp. 764-775

Batalle D, Edwards AD, O’Muircheartaigh J; Annual Research Review: Not just a small adult brain: understanding later neurodevelopment through imaging the neonatal brain; Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 2018, 59(4), pp. 350-371

Batalle D, Hughes EJ, Zhang H, Tournier J-D, Tusor N, Aljabar P, Wali L, Alexander DC, Hajnal JV, Nosarti C, Edwards AD, Counsell SJ; Early development of structural networks and the impact of prematurity on brain connectivity; Neuroimage, 2017, 149, pp. 379-392