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Neuroimaging
Neuroimaging
resources include structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging,
spectroscopic and diffusion analysis, fiber track mapping, fMRI protocol
development, and training of pediatric and brain/behavior disordered
subjects to cooperate with research protocols including motion control
during scans. The F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain
Imaging is dedicated to brain research using functional MRI technologies
and is specifically designed to provide a uniquely comfortable scanning
environment for studies in children, the elderly, and subjects with
neurological and psychiatric disorders. The center opened in May of 1999
with a 1.5 Tesla scanner, and was upgraded in early 2002 with the
addition of a 3.0 Tesla scanner (both from Philips Medical Systems).
Both magnets are unique in that they have very short bores. For
example, the 1.5 T scanner has the shortest bore available of all 1.5T
scanners. The special design of the Center includes enhanced MRI
signal-to-noise and temporal stability, integration of dedicated
equipment for stimulus provision and subject monitoring, and a second
radio-frequency channel to allow heteronuclear and homonuclear MR
spectroscopy interleaved with fast imaging. The Center was established
through the combined efforts of neuroscientists, physicists, and
radiologists at KKI and Johns Hopkins University, who concluded that
functional neuroimaging would thrive in a resource dedicated to brain
research, where newly developed methods could be applied directly to
neuroscience. MR techniques available and those being developed include
imaging of brain blood flow and oxygen consumption, imaging of brain
metabolite levels and metabolic activity, and imaging of axonal
connections. In addition, an MRI-compatible electroencephalogram (EEG)
and high resolution evoked potential (EP) system has been obtained to
complement the Phillips functional MRI systems. This EEG system is
intended for studies that will permit correlation of fMRI data with
neurophysiological monitoring and should provide investigators with a
system for high-resolution EEG/EP acquisition and analysis and spatial
coregistration of the EEG/EP data with fMRI. More information about the
Kirby Center may be found on-line at mri.kennedykrieger.org.
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Protocol Development: The NBRU will assist
investigators in the development of research protocols including
neuroimaging paradigms, customized assessments and operant performance
tasks.
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Behavior Training: Staff of the NBRU will
train research subjects to cooperate with protocols, which is especially
important with pediatric subjects and subjects with behavior and
compliance problems. fMRI protocol development will be based on the
activation criteria specified by investigators and the abilities of
subjects to cooperate with special tasks. Specifically, behavioral
protocols will be designed based on the specific fMRI acquisition goals
of the study and the abilities of NBRU staff to train subjects to
cooperate with the protocol. The end product will be a neuroimaging
paradigm that addresses each investigator’s hypothesis and specifies the
behavioral performance and cortical activation tasks and related
procedures that ensure the needed subject cooperation, response
acquisition, motion control, etc.
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