Developing functional sodium (Na) imaging (fNaI): a direct window into neuronal excitability in health and diseased brain

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Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has dominated neuroscience by indirectly measuring brain activity. It allows mapping of MR signal changes due to increased blood volume and flow resulting from neuronal activation, although it is affected by subject specific haemodynamic factors. Measuring neuronal activity directly would have major benefits, including a more specific localisation of activation areas and a reduced dependency on background cerebrovascular factors. Current technology makes it possible to measure sodium concentration in the human brain using 3T MRI. This project will develop acquisition, reconstruction and analysis for directly measure a key component of neuronal activity, i.e. sodium flux. AI and machine learning will be explored for sodium image reconstruction and activity detection. If sodium imaging, dynamically repeated, was successful in detecting sodium ion concentration changes evoked by specific tasks, it would become a more direct way of investigating brain function, complementing BOLD-fMRI. Preliminary results are very encouraging and are a first world-wide. The PhD will need to explore the physiological basis of sodium flux and potentially work with realistic models to explain the detected signal changes. Clinical applications in multiple sclerosis will explore clinical feasibility of functional sodium imaging and its potential impact.