3Tesla magnet resonance tomograph

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A key focus of the neuroscientific and cognitive research conducted by the Ruhr University Bochum comprises the study of mechanisms underlying information processing and cognition in the healthy and dysfunctional brain. Over the last decade we have developed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) expertise that allows us to engage in high-resolution functional differentiation of brain regions and neural representations that engage in memory formation, or malformation, and in the scrutiny of changes that occur in the CNS during disease progression. Our methodology includes combined EEG/fMRI, neurite orientation and dispersion imaging (NODDI), neurotransmitter spectroscopy and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). This research is at the heart of our current and planned collaborative research consortia that focus on different aspects of learning and memory, as well as on brain disease. Thus, the availability of a state-of-the art- 3,0 MRI device is not only essential for the abovementioned research, but shall serve as a hub for further research innovation and new initiatives.The device should fulfill technical specifications to permit, at the level of basic research, examination of neural representations of spatial navigation and the scrutiny of the role of dendrite density in cognitive flexibility (NODDI). At the clinical and translational levels our goal, for example, is to use combined EEG/fMRI to examine communication between the parietal and motor cortices, and between the hippocampus and parietal cortex during neural feedback learning, with the aim of developing strategies to optimise reach and hold movements driven by cortical stimulation (and subsequent cortical adaptation) of paraplegic patients. Furthermore, we plan to use fMRI, DTI and spectroscopy to examine processes underlying sensory information transfer, as well as to examine inflammation and neurodegeneration processes during the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). DTI, fMRI, and resting state MRI (rsMRI) shall also be used to scrutinise the emotional and cognitive representations of pain, stress and personality, or affective, disorders, as well as putative changes in these putative biomarkers during therapy. The acquisition of a state-of-the art- 3,0 MRI device to replace our 12 year old current device will substantially strengthen our current research, and allow us to exploit the full potential of our acquired expertise in advanced MRI methodology. By this means we intend to make a novel contribution to our understanding of brain systems and neural subcompartments that support memory acquisition and updating, as well as cognitive processing in malaligned or disease states. By observing the brain during adaptive processes (neural feedback learning, cognitive adaptation to pain/stress/affective disorders, brain responses to therapeutic treatments) our hope is to use this methodology to expedite brain recovery, and/or resistance to pathological states.