Expansion of a Computing Facility for fMRI and Neuroimaging Analysis

描述（由申请人提供）：普林斯顿大学大脑、精神和行为研究中心（CSBMB）的使命是支持对精神功能神经机制的多学科研究。中心的研究人员来自不同的学科，包括数学，物理，化学，工程，神经科学和心理学。他们工作的主要焦点是使用功能磁共振成像来研究与心理功能相关的大脑活动的模式和动力学，如视觉感知，注意力，工作记忆，长期情景记忆和决策。CSBMB研究人员一直处于该领域的最前沿，包括开发分析fMRI数据的新方法。例如，他们领导了模式分析的多变量方法的发展，并证明了他们能够区分使用标准分析方法不可能的认知状态。这些新方法需要更大的数据集，以及原始数据的大量扩展，对计算资源的需求越来越大。与此同时，对这些努力的兴趣越来越大，吸引了更多的调查人员前往CSBMB及其设施。最近普林斯顿大学神经科学研究所的成立及其师资扩充计划进一步加速了这一进程。这些发展给CSBMB的计算设施带来了压力，目前的限制开始限制CSBMB调查人员的研究工作。在本提案中，我们请求支持扩大这一设施，大幅度增加其文件服务器的储存能力，并提高用于访问这一服务器的网络连接的带宽。CSBMB和大学已承诺将这些请求与CSBMB计算服务器的内存扩展相匹配，并继续支付维护和支持该计算设施的所有费用。 CSBMB支持的工作旨在加深我们对精神功能的神经机制的理解，这些神经机制在广泛的临床条件下受到干扰，包括抑郁症，焦虑症，精神分裂症，神经损伤，衰老和药物成瘾。CSBMB研究人员在这项工作中得到了一些NIH研究所的资助，包括NIMH，NINDS，NIDA，NIA和NIE。这项工作的进展有望导致更复杂和更有效的方法来诊断，治疗和最终治愈精神疾病，就像我们对心血管功能基本机制的理解导致了更复杂和更有效的心脏病治疗一样。目前的提案将支持CSBMB研究人员的研究工作，为他们提供必要的技术基础设施，以进行更复杂的神经影像学研究，对他们产生的数据进行更详细的分析，并构建用于解释这些发现的更现实的神经功能模型。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The mission of Princeton's Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior (CSBMB) is to support multidisciplinary research on the neural mechanisms underlying mental function. Center researchers come from a variety of disciplines, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, neuroscience and psychology. A primary focus of their work has been the use of fMRI to study the pattern and dynamics of brain activity associated with mental functions such as visual perception, attention, working memory, long term episodic memory, and decision making. CSBMB investigators have been at the forefront of this field, including the development of new methods for analyzing fMRI data. For example, they have led the development of multivariate methods of pattern analysis, and have demonstrated their ability to distinguish between cognitive states not possible using standard methods of analysis. These new methods require larger datasets, and substantial expansion of the raw data, placing increasingly heavy demands on computational resources. At the same time, growing interest in these efforts has attracted additional investigators to the CSBMB and its facilities. This has been further accelerated by the recent formation of Princeton's Neuroscience Institute and its plans for faculty expansion. These developments are placing strains on the CSBMB's computing facilities, the current limits of which are beginning to constrain the research efforts of CSBMB investigators. In this proposal, we request support to expand this facility by substantially increasing the storage capacity of its file server, and upgrading bandwidth on network connections used to access this server. The CSBMB and the University have committed to match these requests with an expansion of the memory for the CSBMB compute server, and to continue to cover all expenses for the maintenance and support of this computing facility. Work supported by the CSBMB aims to deepen our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying mental functions that are disturbed in a wide range of clinical conditions, including depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, neurological impairments, aging, and drug addiction. CSBMB investigators are supported, in this work, by grants from a number of NIH institutes, including NIMH, NINDS, NIDA, NIA and NIE. Progress in this work promises to lead to more sophisticated and more effective approaches to the diagnosis, treatment and ultimately cure of mental disease, in just the way that our understanding of basic mechanisms of cardiovascular function have led to more sophisticated and effective treatment of heart disease. The current proposal will support the research efforts of CSBMB investigators by providing them with the technological infrastructure necessary to pursue more sophisticated neuroimaging studies, to conduct more detailed analyses of the data they generate, and to construct more realistic models of neural function used to interpret these findings.