Expansion of a Computing Facility for fMRI and Neuroimaging Analysis

描述(由申请者提供)：普林斯顿大脑、精神和行为研究中心(CSBMB)的使命是支持对精神功能潜在的神经机制的多学科研究。该中心的研究人员来自不同的学科，包括数学、物理、化学、工程学、神经科学和心理学。他们工作的一个主要焦点是使用功能磁共振成像来研究大脑活动的模式和动力学，这些活动与视觉感知、注意力、工作记忆、长期情景记忆和决策等心理功能有关。CSBMB的研究人员一直处于这一领域的前沿，包括开发分析功能磁共振数据的新方法。例如，他们领导了多变量模式分析方法的发展，并展示了他们区分认知状态的能力，这是标准分析方法不可能做到的。这些新方法需要更大的数据集，以及原始数据的大幅扩展，对计算资源的要求越来越高。与此同时，对这些努力的兴趣与日俱增，吸引了更多的调查人员到CSBMB及其设施。最近普林斯顿神经科学研究所的成立及其扩大教员的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调查人员的研究努力。在本提案中，我们请求支持通过大幅增加其文件服务器的存储容量以及升级用于访问此服务器的网络连接上的带宽来扩展此设施。CSBMB和大学已承诺为CSBMB计算服务器扩展内存，以满足这些请求，并继续支付这一计算设施的所有维护和支持费用。 CSBMB支持的工作旨在加深我们对在各种临床条件下受到干扰的精神功能的神经机制的理解，这些疾病包括抑郁症、焦虑症、精神分裂症、神经损伤、衰老和药物成瘾。在这项工作中，CSBMB的调查人员得到了许多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诊断、治疗和最终治愈精神疾病的更复杂和更有效的方法，就像我们对心血管功能的基本机制的理解导致更复杂和有效的心脏病治疗一样。目前的建议将支持CSBMB调查人员的研究工作，为他们提供必要的技术基础设施，以进行更复杂的神经成像研究，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.