MRI: Acquisition of a Shared MR Instrument for Interdisciplinary Work on Cognition, Decision-making, Child development, Education, Perception and Emotion

该奖项由2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)资助，该奖项允许Brian Wandell博士和他在斯坦福大学的合作者购买一台3T功能性磁共振成像扫描仪。这台共享的仪器将成为一个名为神经生物成像中心的新设施的核心，该中心旨在推进涉及人类决策、认知、感知、儿童发展、教育和情感等主题的科学研究和培训。该仪器将用于支持促进对人脑的了解的研究，并提供机会将大脑功能和系统的教学整合到不同领域的学生的课程中。该仪器将提高旨在了解人脑功能的广泛科学研究工作的效率和质量，并最终将这一新知识应用于有效的社会、经济、教育和法律制度的发展。研究方法涉及基础科学家和工程师之间的伙伴关系。科学家们认为，过去15年在成像方面的进展仍处于早期阶段，在未来10年内，应该可以测量特定分子在大脑中的分布，详细跟踪大脑的发育情况，并测量神经胶质细胞的特性。在实验室里，磁共振物理学家、统计学家、心理学家和其他社会科学家之间的密切联系将使人们有可能合作探索新的成像模式，并将技术进步转化为科学见解。该仪器以及相关软件和分析工具还将用于培训研究生和博士后研究员了解人脑的先进方法。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This award permits Dr. Brian Wandell and his collaborators at Stanford University to purchase a 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The shared instrument will be the centerpiece of a new facility, The Center for Neurobiological Imaging, designed to advance scientific research and training on topics spanning human decision-making, cognition, perception, child development, education and emotion. The instrument will be used to support research that advances understanding of the human brain and also offer the opportunity to integrate teaching about brain functions and systems into the curricula of students in a variety of fields. The instrument will increase the efficiency and quality of a broad array of scientific research efforts that aim to understand human brain function, and ultimately apply this new knowledge to the development of effective social, economic, educational and legal systems. The research approach involves a partnership between basic scientists and engineers. The advances in imaging over the last fifteen years are still in an early phase and within the next ten years, scientists believe, it should be possible to measure the distributions of particular molecules within the brain, trace brain development in detail and measure properties of the neuroglia. The close proximity in the laboratory between magnetic resonance physicists, statisticians, psychologists and other social scientists will make it possible to explore collaboratively new imaging modalities and transform technical advances into scientific insights. The instrument and related software and analysis tools will also be used to train graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in advanced methods for understanding the human brain.