Microdevice mediated functional brain imaging with high temporal and spatial resolution

项目摘要 用于记录大脑活动以及EEG和MEG的基于电流电极的方法提供了高的可靠性。 时间分辨率，但限于数千个通道。功能性磁共振成像可以询问数百个 成千上万的大脑体素并行，但限于血液动力学的时间分辨率的顺序 秒目前还没有可以同时实现高时间分辨率（ms尺度）的方法 高通道数（~106通道）。 我们建议探索使用微电子设备与MRI结合，以实现至少两个 与现有方法相比，组合的空间和时间分辨率增加了几个数量级。 在我们的方法中，大量4-500 μ m的小型设备将分布在大脑中， 无论是通过大脑表面还是通过血液，并用于感知局部神经活动， 电气检测然后，这些设备将以一种方式主动扰动它们的局部磁环境， 可以通过磁共振成像检测和定位。这种方法结合了高时间分辨率 具有MRI的高空间分辨率/覆盖范围的电或磁检测。两个核心的小说概念 在该建议中：1）微器件可以用于检测本地信号并仅输出本地信号 干扰，而不是直接与外部接收器通信;和2）MRI可能是一种有效的 传递和定位这些信号的方法。 从长远来看，我们相信这种方法可以扩展到数百万台4 μ m规模的设备， 在血液中，提供整个大脑的电活动的体积检测。作为中间目标， 我们的目标是从整个皮层表面记录亚毫米尺度和10毫秒分辨率的神经活动， 同时提供每个皮质柱的电活动的测量。

Project Summary Current electrode based approaches for recording of brain activity, as well as EEG and MEG, provide high temporal resolution, but are limited to thousands of channels. Functional MRI can interrogate hundreds of thousands of brain voxels in parallel, but is limited by hemodynamics to a temporal resolution on the order of seconds. There are no current methods that can simultaneously achieve high temporal resolution (ms scale) and high channel count (~106 channels). We propose to explore the use of microelectronic devices in conjunction with MRI, to achieve at least two orders of magnitude increase in combined spatial and temporal resolution over existing methods. In our approach large numbers of small devices on the scale of 4-500m will be distributed across the brain, either across the surface of the brain or through the blood, and used to sense the local neural activity through electrical detection. These devices will then actively perturb their local magnetic environment in a manner that is both detectable and localizable through MR imaging. This approach combines the high temporal resolution of electrical or magnetic detection with the high spatial resolution/coverage of MRI. Two central novel concepts in this proposal are: 1) that microdevices may be used to detect local signals and output only local perturbations, rather than communicate directly with external receivers; and 2) that MRI may be an efficient means of both relaying and localizing these signals. In the long term, we believe this approach may be scalable to millions of devices on the 4m scale circulating in the blood, providing volumetric detection of electrical activity throughout the brain. As an intermediate goal we aim to record neural activity at sub-millimeter scale and 10ms resolution from the entire cortical surface, providing a measure of electrical activity at every cortical column simultaneously.