MRI: Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy System for Advanced Neuroimaging

北达科他州立大学的Mark E. McCourt博士将与系里的同事一起，利用最新获得的最先进的功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）系统，研究人类感觉、感知、认知、情感和行动的神经机制。fNIRS是一种非侵入性神经成像技术，通过测量和分析通过头皮、颅骨和皮质组织传输的红外光来研究大脑功能。McCourt和他的同事们将使用近红外光谱来测量所有年龄段的神经正常人群的大脑活动，以及那些患有精神分裂症、抑郁症、自闭症或其他精神或神经疾病的特殊人群。该项目将基础研究目标与研究生、研究生、本科生和公共教育相结合。在过去的十年中，基于使用近红外光谱技术的科学出版物呈指数增长，近红外光谱神经成像正迅速成为理解大脑行为关系的重要科学工具。fNIRS系统将极大地增强McCourt博士以及另外六名初级和高级研究人员的研究能力和活动。研究人员将使用fNIRS系统来比较背侧（动作）和腹侧（感知）处理流中的视听多感觉整合（MI）；测量6个月至5岁儿童对现实世界物体（如面孔）的神经表征在发展过程中的变化；发现负责编码视网膜强度分布的皮质机制，以表示亮度（空间区域的表观强度）与亮度（表面的表观反射率）；检查学龄前儿童学习同音异义词（具有不同意义的感知等效词）的神经基础；研究神经正常和精神分裂症患者选择性注意和视觉工作记忆的神经机制利用fNIRS系统揭示平滑追踪眼动信号的来源，这对于从运动视差中获得明确的深度信息至关重要；并研究使手部附近物体的视觉感知与其他位置相同物体的视觉感知在数量上不同的神经机制。fNIRS技术的可用性将大大增加教师和学生的培训机会和研究竞争力。

Dr. Mark E. McCourt, of North Dakota State University, along with departmental colleagues, will undertake research to study the neural mechanisms of human sensation, perception, cognition, emotion, and action using the newly acquired state-of-the-art Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) system. fNIRS is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique for investigating brain function through the measurement and analysis of infrared light that has been transmitted through the scalp, skull and cortical tissue. McCourt and colleagues will use fNIRS to measure brain activity in neurologically normal people of all ages, as well as in special populations such as those with schizophrenia, depression, autism, or other psychiatric or neurological conditions. The project integrates basic research goals with postgraduate, graduate, undergraduate, and public education. Scientific publications based on the use of fNIRS technology have increased exponentially over the past decade, and fNIRS neuroimaging is rapidly becoming an essential scientific tool for understanding brain-behavior relationships. The fNIRS system will dramatically augment the research capability and activities of Dr. McCourt as well as six additional junior and senior researchers. Researchers will use the fNIRS system to compare audiovisual multisensory integration (MI) within the dorsal (action) and ventral (perception) processing streams; measure how the neural representation of real-world objects (e.g. faces) changes over the course of development in children ages 6 months-5 years; discover the cortical mechanisms responsible for encoding the retinal intensity distribution to represent brightness (the apparent intensity of a region of space) versus lightness (the apparent reflectance of a surface); examine the neural basis for learning homophones (words with different meanings that are perceptually equivalent) in preschool-age children; study the neural mechanisms of selective attention and visual working memory in neurologically normal participants as well as in those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia; use the fNIRS system to disclose the origin of the smooth pursuit eye movement signal which is essential for obtaining unambiguous depth information from motion parallax; and study the neural mechanisms that make visual perception of objects near the hands quantitatively different than the perception of the same objects at other locations. The availability of fNIRS technology will greatly enhance training opportunities and research competitiveness for faculty and students alike.