MRI: Acquisition of a Research-Dedicated fMRI Scanner at Stony Brook

该合同将向纽约石溪大学(SBU)提供资金，用于购买西门子Magnetom Trio 3特斯拉磁共振成像(MRI)扫描仪。这台设备将成为SBU的社会、认知和情感神经科学(Provostic Scan)中心的最先进的核心设备。扫描中心的科学重点是社会、认知和情感人类行为的神经基础。直到最近，心理学模型还仅仅基于行为数据，缺乏神经数据来约束这些模型。现在，随着非侵入性神经成像方法的出现，探索复杂人类行为的神经关联已经成为可能，导致了文章的爆炸性增长，仅在2006年就推出了两本与扫描相关的杂志。扫描仪将在围绕三个主题的项目背景下支持研究和教育：(1)人际社会关系，(2)认知过程，(3)情感过程。此外，拟议的扫描仪将支持(4)相关技术开发。扫描中心将通过与MRI相关的课程、研讨会、实践培训和实验以及实验设计和分析的指导指导来促进教学、培训和学习，从而将研究和教育结合起来。该中心将通过扩大代表不足的群体在研究和教学中的参与来促进多样性。例如，一些参与的系(心理学、生物医学工程)的毕业生人口中有50%是女性，10%是少数民族。密歇根州立大学的本科生群体更加多样化：50%是女性；10%是非洲裔美国人；22%是亚裔或太平洋岛民；9%是西班牙裔美国人。非常成功的本科项目包括WISE(科学与工程女性)，这是一个最初由NSF资助的项目，为对科学职业感兴趣的女性学生提供支持，以及MARC(少数族裔进入研究职业)，是NIH资助的少数族裔在实验室工作的奖学金项目。拟议的设备将大大加强SBU和BNL教职员工和学生的研究和教育基础设施。幸运的是，SBU和BNL已经拥有一支对扫描领域感兴趣的强大研究队伍，其中总共有200多本同行评议的神经成像出版物，但这些研究人员目前无法在当地访问专门从事研究的现代人类神经成像设施。该中心将把这些研究人员聚集在一起，进行令人兴奋的合作，并使SBU能够在未来吸引其他优秀的扫描科学家。这也将对SBU的技术发展机会产生更广泛的影响：SBU在生物医学工程、物理、计算机科学和其他学科方面拥有公认的优势，这将有助于该中心的影响。该中心反过来将促进这些学科之间以及与扫描研究人员之间令人兴奋的互动。随着时间的推移，位于主校区附近的SBU研发园区将为科学合作和技术开发提供更令人兴奋的机会。因此，扫描中心的建立将为不同的研究人员群体和大学的研究企业带来巨大的直接好处。最后，它将对长岛的社区产生更广泛的影响：通过出版物、公开讲座和SBU的新闻办公室，扫描中心的结果将广泛分发给公众。扫描中心还将展示大脑和正在进行的研究项目，并向当地K-12学校和其他对学习神经科学感兴趣的团体开放参观。

This award will provide funds to Stony Brook University (SBU), New York, to purchase a Siemens MAGNETOM Trio 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. This piece of equipment will become the state-of-the-art centerpiece of a Provostial SCAN (Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience) Center at SBU. The scientific focus of the SCAN Center is on the neural bases of social, cognitive, and affective human behavior. Until recently, psychological models were based solely on behavioral data in the absence of neural data to constrain these models. Now, with the advent of non-invasive neuroimaging methods, it has become feasible to explore the neural correlates of complex human behavior, leading to an explosion of articles and two SCAN-related journal launches in 2006 alone. The scanner will support research and education in the context of projects centered on three themes: (1) interpersonal social relations, (2) cognitive processes, (3) emotional processes. In addition, the proposed scanner will support (4) relevant technology development. The SCAN Center will integrate research and education by promoting teaching, training, and learning through MRI-related courses, seminars, hands-on training and experimentation, and mentored instruction in experimental design and analysis. The Center will promote diversity by broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in research and teaching. For example, some participating departments (Psychology, Biomedical Engineering) have graduate populations of 50% female and 10% minorities. SBU's undergraduate population is even more diverse: 50% female; 10% African American, 22% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 9% Hispanic American. Highly successful undergraduate programs include WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), a program initially funded by NSF that provides support to female students interested in scientific careers, and MARC (Minority Access to Research Careers), an NIH-funded fellowship program for minorities to work in laboratories. The proposed equipment would substantially enhance the infrastructure for research and education for SBU and BNL faculty and students. SBU and BNL are fortunate to already have a strong cadre of researchers with interests in the SCAN area, with a total of more than 200 peer-reviewed neuroimaging publications among them, but these researchers currently have no local access to a research-dedicated, modern human neuroimaging facility. The Center will bring these researchers together to produce exciting collaborations and enable SBU to attract other outstanding SCAN scientists in the future. There will also be broader impact on SBU's technology-development opportunities: SBU has well-recognized strengths in biomedical engineering, physics, computer science and other disciplines that will contribute to the impact of the center. The Center in turn will stimulate exciting interactions among these disciplines and with the SCAN researchers. With time, SBU's Research and Development Park adjacent to the main campus will provide even more exciting opportunities for scientific collaboration and for technology development. Thus, the establishment of the SCAN Center for will provide significant immediate benefits for a diverse group of investigators and for the University's research enterprise. Finally, there will be broader impact on Long Island's community: through publications, public lectures, and SBU's press office, results from the SCAN Center will be widely distributed to the public. The SCAN Center will also feature displays of the brain and ongoing research projects, and be open for tours by local K-12 schools and other groups interested in learning about neuroscience.