MRI: Acquisition of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Instrumentation to Advance Understanding of the Brain

到目前为止，人们对大脑的结构组成已经有了很好的了解。然而，对大脑如何产生认知和行为的充分理解仍然难以捉摸。这一点很重要，因为阐明大脑的功能连接有助于在整个生命周期内改善或维持大脑功能，这对于指导教育和康复方法至关重要。授予南达科他大学的这一奖项将允许获得经颅磁刺激(TMS)设备，以澄清大脑与行为的关系。这是一种安全、非侵入性的方法，可以将磁脉冲应用于特定的大脑区域，以在实验任务或条件下激活或减少活动。TMS可以测试人类体内任何其他技术无法确定的因果结构-功能关系。这一仪器将被联合大学四所不同学校/学院的研究人员使用，以解决感觉运动和认知/行为神经科学方面的突出问题。除了促进对大脑功能的理解外，该仪器还将有助于培训下一代神经科学家，特别是来自不同或代表不足的背景的神经科学家，如美洲原住民、农村和第一代学生。此外，这项技术的概念和从该仪器获得的结果将成为对普通公众和K-12学生进行神经科学教育的基础。TMS在市立大学进行的这项研究将在三个主要方面显著促进神经生理学、行为神经科学和认知神经科学领域的发展。神经生理学的发现将对理解运动系统中的学习有重要的意义。这是因为项目将确定运动系统的可塑性，将确定使这种可塑性得以实现的神经网络，并展示这种可塑性对感觉运动和熟练运动功能的结果。行为和认知神经科学项目将提供有关决策基础的神经生物学方面的新的、潜在的变革性信息，这些信息可以应用于消费者营销、领导力研究和改善冲动控制。此外，TMS仪器的研究将通过直接的教育应用，挑战分离的语言理解和产生网络的传统思想，以更好地理解语言的发展和功能障碍。因此，拟议的仪器将使研究能够显著促进对大脑功能的理解，以及如何将其应用于健康、营销、心理学和教育部门的各种应用。

To date there is good understanding of the structural makeup of the brain. However, a full understanding about how the brain produces cognition and behavior still remains elusive. This is important because elucidating the functional connectivity of the brain serves to assist efforts in improving or maintaining brain function across the lifespan, which is critical for directing educational and rehabilitation approaches. This award to the University of South Dakota (USD) will allow the acquisition of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) equipment to clarify brain-behavior relationships. This is a safe, non-invasive method for applying a magnetic pulse to a specific brain region to either activate or decrease activity during experimental tasks or conditions. TMS can test causal structural-functional relationships that cannot be ascertained with any other technology within humans. This instrumentation will be utilized by researchers across four different Schools/Colleges at the USD, to solve outstanding problems in sensorimotor and cognitive/behavioral neuroscience. In addition to advancing understanding of brain function, the instrumentation will contribute to the training of the next generation of neuroscientists, particularly from diverse or underrepresented backgrounds such as Native Americans, rural and first generation students. Furthermore, the concepts of the technology and the findings gained from this instrumentation will form the basis of neuroscience education to the general public and K-12 students.The research enabled by TMS at the USD will significantly advance the fields of neurophysiology, behavioral neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience in three major ways. Neurophysiological findings will have important implications for understanding of learning within the motor systems. This is because projects will determine the capacity for plasticity in the motor system, will identify the neural networks that enable this plasticity, and demonstrate the outcomes of this plasticity on sensorimotor and skilled motor function. Behavioral and cognitive neuroscience projects will provide new and potentially transformative information regarding the neurobiology underlying decision making that could be applied to consumer marketing, leadership studies and improving impulse control. Furthermore, research enabled by TMS instrumentation will challenge the traditional thought of separate language comprehension and production networks to better our understanding of language development and dysfunction, with direct educational applications. Thus, the proposed instrumentation will enable research that significantly furthers the understanding of brain function and how that can be employed in a variety of applications in health, marketing, psychology and educational sectors.