CAREER: Brain Electric Source Imaging

9875344HeBrain活动在空间上分布于大脑的三维空间中，并随着时间的推移而演化。最近医学成像技术的进步，如功能性核磁共振成像，极大地提高了我们以高空间分辨率成像大脑功能的能力。然而，目前还没有单一的脑成像技术能够在激活组织区域的定位上提供接近毫米的精度，并在表征激活模式随时间变化的时间精度上提供亚秒的精度。虽然脑电图提供了极好的时间分辨率来表征大脑活动的快速变化模式，但传统的脑电图技术由于无法提供有关大脑活动的空间信息而受到限制。因此，开发具有高时空分辨率的无创脑活动成像技术具有重要意义。为CAREER项目提出了一个连贯的研究和教学计划。研究的重点是开发脑电源成像（BESI）方法，以实现人脑的高分辨率时空映射。BESI方法的成功发展将显著推进生物医学工程领域的最新技术，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，将解决以下目标：(1)边界元素头部建模-开发工程方法，将现实形状不均匀的头部中的皮质电位与头皮电位联系起来；(2)脑源图像重建-开发从头皮电位重建皮质电位的成像算法，并在现实环境中确定最佳系统参数；(3)实验验证-在现实头部幻象中实验验证提出的BESI方法。(4)初步临床试验——通过癫痫患者术中皮层记录，初步测试所提出的BESI方法。一项与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”（研究生课程）和(b)“神经工程概论”（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，以及(3)启动和开发神经工程新课程。

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.