CAREER: Brain Electric Source Imaging

9875344 He脑活动在空间上分布在大脑的三个维度中，并随时间演变。 医学成像技术的最新进展，如功能性MRI，大大提高了我们以高空间分辨率成像大脑功能的能力。 然而，目前没有单一的脑成像技术能够提供在定位激活组织的区域时的近毫米精度和用于表征激活模式随时间的变化的亚秒级时间精度。 虽然脑电图提供了极好的时间分辨率来表征快速变化的大脑激活模式，但常规EEG技术由于无法提供关于大脑活动的空间信息而受到限制。 因此，开发能够以高的空间和时间分辨率对大脑活动进行非侵入性成像的技术是非常重要的。一个连贯的研究和教学计划，提出了职业生涯计划。 研究的重点是开发脑电源成像（BESI）方法，以实现高分辨率的人脑时空映射。 BESI方法的成功开发将极大地推动生物医学工程领域的发展，并对神经病学和神经外科领域产生重要影响。为了实现拟议的研究目标，将实现以下目标：（2）脑源图像重建-开发成像算法，从头皮电位重建皮层电位，并确定现实环境中的最佳系统参数，（3）实验验证-在真实的头部模型中对所提出的BESI方法进行实验验证。（4）初步临床测试-通过癫痫患者术中皮层记录初步测试所提出的BESI方法。与BESI研究紧密联系的创新教学计划将包括：（1）开发两门新课程（a）“神经工程学”（研究生课程），以及（B）“神经工程导论”（高级/研究生课程），（2）开发基于互联网的神经工程课件，促进有效的教学和远程学习，（3）神经工程新课程的启动与发展。

9875344HeBrain activity is spatially distributed in three dimensions of the brain and evolves with time. Recent advances in medical imaging technology, such as functional MRI, have greatly increased our ability to image brain functions with high spatial resolution. However, no single brain imaging technology is currently capable of providing both near millimeter precision in localizing regions of activated tissues and sub-second temporal precision for characterizing changes in patterns of activation over time. While electroencephalograms offer excellent temporal resolution to characterize rapidly changing patterns of brain activation, conventional EEG techniques are limited due to their inability to provide spatial information regarding brain activity. Thus, it is of great importance to develop technologies, which can non-invasively image brain activity with high spatial and temporal resolution. A coherent research and teaching plan is proposed for the CAREER program. The focus of the research is to develop Brain Electric Source Imaging (BESI) methodologies to achieve high-resolution spatio-temporal mapping of the human brain. The successful development of BESI methodologies will significantly advance the state-of-the-art in the field of biomedical engineering, and have an important impact on the fields of neurology and neurosurgery. In order to achieve the proposed research objectives, the following aims will be addressed: (1) Boundary Element Head Modeling - to develop engineering methods to link the cortical potential with the scalp potential in a realistically shaped inhomogeneous head, (2) Brain Source Image Reconstruction - to develop imaging algorithms reconstructing cortical potentials from scalp potentials and determine optimal system parameters in a realistic setting, (3) Experimental Validation - to validate experimentally the proposed BESI methods in a realistic head phantom, and (4) Initial Clinical Testing - to initially test the proposed BESI methodologies from intraoperative cortical recordings in epilepsy patients.An innovative teaching plan, tightly linked with the BESI research, will include: (1) development of two new courses (a) "Neural Engineering" (Graduate course), and (b) "Introduction to Neural Engineering" (Senior/Graduate course), (2) development of internet-based neural engineering courseware facilitating effective teaching and distance learning, and (3) initiation and development of a new curriculum in Neural Engineering.