ETG-4000 Optical Topography System

 描述(由申请人提供)：目前，我们在特拉华大学(UD)有多项由美国国立卫生研究院资助的研究，以检验为儿童和成人神经疾病受影响的特殊人群开发的各种行为干预的效果。我们觉得迫切需要了解我们在感兴趣的人群中注意到的行为改善背后的神经变化机制。此外，我们有兴趣研究一系列行为的神经基础，这些行为是NIH重点关注的领域，包括自闭症儿童的工作记忆、自闭症儿童和对立违抗障碍儿童的人际同步性、脑瘫儿童的平衡、唐氏综合症儿童的活动能力、脑损伤婴儿的手臂功能、中风患者的运动，以及老年人与慢性下腰痛相关的心理社会症状。在这份提案中，我们申请资金购买日立功能红外光谱(FNIRS)系统(型号：ETG-4000)，以推进我们的临床和翻译研究计划，以及在儿童/成人神经康复、发展精神病理学以及运动、社会和认知神经科学领域工作的研究人员之间的跨学科合作。常见的神经成像方法，如功能磁共振成像(FMRI)和电生理学方法，如脑电(EEG)，仅限于在有运动或没有运动的情况下进行倾斜或坐着的任务，这使得这些应用在获得存在运动和自然交互过程中的大脑激活数据方面无效。如果加州大学的fNIRS系统可用，它将允许我们检查在各种功能性运动任务中的部分或整个大脑激活，如伸手和行走，以及个体之间的自然主义和基于游戏的互动。这使得fNIRS技术在与不同的儿科和成人特殊人群(包括患有中风和慢性下腰痛的成人、患有自闭症的儿童、脑瘫、对立违抗性障碍和唐氏综合症以及高危婴儿)合作时，在真实世界环境中理解脑-行为关系方面具有真正的转换性和变革性。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Currently we have multiple ongoing NIH funded studies at the University of Delaware (UD) to examine the effects of various behavioral interventions developed for pediatric and adult neurologically affected special populations. We feel there is an urgent need to understand the neural mechanisms of change underlying the behavioral improvements we notice in our populations of interest. Additionally, we are interested in studying the neural substrates for a wide range of behaviors that are an area of emphasis for NIH including working memory in children with Autism, interpersonal synchrony in children with Autism and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, balance in children with Cerebral Palsy, mobility in children with Down Syndrome, arm function in infants with Brain Injury, locomotion in patients with Stroke, and psychosocial symptoms related to Chronic Low Back Pain in older adults. In this proposal, we are requesting funds to purchase a Hitachi functional infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system (Model: ETG-4000) to advance our clinical and translational research programs as well as interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers working in the areas of pediatric/adult neurorehabilitation, developmental psychopathologies, and motor, social, and cognitive neuroscience. Common neuroimaging approaches such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiological approaches such as Electroencephalography (EEG) are limited to tasks in reclined or seated positions with minimal to no movement, making these applications ineffective in obtaining brain activation data in the presence of movement and during naturalistic interactions. If the fNIRS system were to become available at UD, it would allow us to examine part or whole brain activation during a variety of functional motor tasks such as reaching and walking as well as naturalistic and play-based interactions between individuals. This makes the fNIRS technology truly translational and transformational in understanding brain-behavior relationships within real-world settings when working with a diverse set of pediatric and adult special populations including Adult with Stroke and Chronic Low Back Pain, Children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and Down Syndrome as well as High-risk infants.