Functional MRI Core Facility

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Space Utilization: The FMRIF currently occupies approximately 4800 sq. ft of space, divided between the scanner bays, control rooms and electronics/machine rooms for 3TA, 3TB, 3TC, and 1.5T MRI scanners located within the NMR center and office space on the second floor above the NMR center in the FMRIF/SFIM suite (approximately 1400 sq ft total, including shared conference space). Staff: The FMRIF staff (currently 14 full time employees) consist of: the facility director, three staff scientists (fourth staff scientist is expected to join the group in February 2009), eight MRI technologists, an IT specialist, and an administrative lab manager. Core users: The functional MRI facility supports the research of about 30 Principle Investigators which translates to about 300 researchers overall. Approximately 70 active IRB protocols are active and making use of FMRIF scanners. Each scanner has scheduled operating hours of 105 hours per week. Since the year 2000 until Sep 2008 there were 380 peer reviewed publications published with data acquired on FMRIF MRI scanners and with facility assistance. High Impact Publications Resulting from MRI Usage: Beauchamp, M. S., Argall, B. D., Bodurka, J., Duyn, J. H., & Martin, A. (2004). Unraveling multisensory integration: patchy organization within human STS multisensory cortex. Nat Neuroscience, 2004, 7(5), 809-823. Birn, R. M., Saad, Z. S., & Bandettini, P. A. (2001). Spatial heterogeneity of the nonlinear dynamics in the FMRI BOLD response. NeuroImage, 14(4), 817-826. Callicott, J. H., Straub, R. E., Pezawas, L., Egan, M. F., Mattay, V. S., Hariri, A. R., et al. (2005). Variation in DISC1 affects hippocampal structure and function and increases risk for schizophrenia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(24), 8627-8632. Hariri, A. R., Mattay, V. S., Tessitore, A., Kolachana, B., Fera, F., Goldman, D., et al. (2002). Serotonin transporter genetic variation and the response of the human amygdala. Science, 297(5580), 400-403. Heekeren, H. R., Marrett, S., Bandettini, P. A., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2004). A general mechanism for perceptual decision-making in the human brain. Nature, 431(7010), 859-862. Knutson, B., Fong, G. W., Adams, C. M., Varner, J. L., & Hommer, D. (2001). Dissociation of reward anticipation and outcome with event-related fMRI. NeuroReport, 12(17), 3683-3687. Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Ziemann, U., Hajak, G., Cohen, L., & Berman, K. F. (2002). Transitions between dynamical states of differing stability in the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99(17), 10948-10953. Pessoa, L., McKenna, M., Gutierrez, E., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2002). Neural processing of emotional faces requires attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99(17), 11458-11463. Rickard, T. C., Romero, S. G., Basso, G., Wharton, C., Flitman, S., & Grafman, J. (2000). The calculating brain: An fMRI study. Neuropsychologia, 38(3), 325-335. Accomplishments: The FMRIF completed a major renovation and equipment upgrade in 2007/2008 and now operates three General Electric 3T MRI scanners as well as one General Electric 1.5T MRI scanner. With these new systems our 3T scanning capacity increased approximately 50% (two 3T scanners in 2007 to three 3T scanners in Jan 2008). The new scanners are short-bore General Electric 3 Tesla MRI systems: one is equipped with 16 MRI signal receivers (or channels) and is also equipped for spectroscopy experiments, while the other has 32 channels which can be used for high-resolution functional brain mapping experiments. Both scanners are equipped with an array of RF coils or receivers which provide a state of the art scanning environment. The scanners are equipped with a full system for interfacing with research subjects, including video delivered using high-speed digital projectors and electrostatic audio systems that are MR compatible. These devices are complemented with MR compatible methods for measuring subject/patient physiology in the magnets as well as fiber-optic systems for providing subject feedback and infrared video systems for monitoring eye movements in the magnet. All FMRIF MRI scanners are available for research 14 hours a day and 7 days a week. To ensure high quality imaging data and to reduce scanner down time, advance daily quality assurance procedures have been developed. An additional development includes real-time fMRI capability. This also allows for conducting FMRI experiments involving neurofeedback to the subject. All imaging data are extracted from the MRI scanner, converted, and saved on the fly onto dedicated real-time and data server computers together with complete electronic documentation of all performed scans. In the past year, the functional MRI facility has established a primate imaging platform for anatomical and functional MRI studies of nonhuman primates. This involved the integration of a custom mounting device and coil in addition to a protocol that seamlessly allows the transition of use of the scanner for imaging primates at 1.5T and 3T. This has become a useful tool for those researchers in the NIH that would like to complement their human fMRI studies with primate studies. It should be mentioned that the 1.5T scanner has become the primary clinical research scanner, with the appropriate staff and equipment for studying patients who need additional attention. This utility has proven critically necessary for many protocols. Lastly, a major accomplishment of the core facility last year was in association with the renovations revolving around installation of the new 3T scanner. These renovations required one of our 3T scanners be shut down. Handling this renovation required adjusting the user schedule and establishing temporary time on a scanner owned by GE but set up at the NIH in accordance with a CRADA agreement. This required finesse on the part of the facility staff to manage this transfer. Most users were quite happy with how this was handled, as their research was not significantly interrupted.