Resource for Quantitative Functional MRI
From BTRR
Overview
The resource is an interdepartmental and interdisciplinary effort consisting of four technical research and developments (TRD) projects and many collaborations dedicated to design novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data acquisition and data processing technology to facilitate the biomedical research of a large community of clinicians and neuroscientists at several institutions in Maryland and throughout the United States, with a special focus on pediatric and neurodevelopmental applications. The overall aims are to: 1) develop functional and physiologic MRI and MRS methods that can ultimately be used in a fast and quantitative comprehensive multimodality exam to assess pediatric disease; 2) develop image processing strategies to allow quantitative study of brain development applying the methods developed in AIM 1; 3) develop functional MRI processing strategies that are less dependent on subject compliance; 4) extend the presently available technologies for the brain as well as the to-be-developed technologies for application in the spine; 5) develop, apply, and validate these technologies in close collaboration with expert neuroscientists and clinicians; and 6) disseminate this new technology, train investigators in this new technology, and provide service to allow proper use of this technology. A big part of this effort is to provide these MRI technologies at 3 Tesla, and, in the near future, at 7 Tesla, where benefits of an increase in temporal, spatial, and spectral resolution can be exploited.
TRD1: functional MRI (fMRI) data acquisition and analysis: fMRI analysis approaches that can reveal brain activity not predicted in advance by simple models (data-driven analysis), allowing extension of fMRI to the study of rich naturalistic behaviors and paradigms that require less subject compliance.
TRD2: Multimodality MRI and MRS for functional assessment of brain and spinal cord pathologies. MRI and MRS approaches for quantitative determination of tissue physiologic and metabolic parameters. This includes new methods for blood volume MRI, magnetization transfer imaging, pH imaging, and spectroscopic imaging using parallel imaging approaches.
TRD3: diffusion tensor MRI: High-resolution three-dimensional (3-D) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and fiber tracking/axonal mapping combined with multiple modalities of TRD2 for a tract-based physiologic analysis of brain and spinal cord. Together with TRD4, development of voxel-based analysis and tensor-based brain morphometry approaches to allow the study brain development.
TRD4: algorithms for functional and anatomical brain analysis: Advanced computational technology, including Bayesian segmentation, volume-surface matching approaches, and dynamic tracking of vector fields. Methods for combining all image modalities into a general whole-brain reference frame.
