State-of-the-Art Ultra-High-Field MRI for Crossing Scales in Basic Neuroscience

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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a well-known medical imaging technology that allows safe scanning of the human body. For this reason it is well used by hospitals to help diagnose disease. It is also a valuable technology for studying the healthy human, to better understand normal anatomy and function of the body's organs. For the best image resolution and quality it is helpful to use a magnetic field strength that is as high as possible. Over recent years, research MRI scanners have been produced that are between two and five times stronger than the scanners used in hospitals. The University of Oxford installed one of these 'high-field' scanners in 2011 and has used it to study the healthy human brain. Exquisite spatial detail and functional information can be obtained, but there are parts of the brain that cannot be imaged well, due to distortions in the way the images are acquired. In this grant we seek to add newly developed technologies to our high-field scanner that substantially resolve these distortions so that information from all parts of the brain can be obtained.In particular, with the proposed upgrade, we will be able to obtain good imaging data from the temporal lobes of the brain (involved in functions like memory, visual and sound processing, and language), the brain stem (involved in basic functions such as breathing, heart rate and the perception of pain), and the cerebellum (involved in movement, posture and balance). We can also examine the chemistry of the brain using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, that allow measurements to be made of the principal chemicals involved in brain processes and internal communication.