Development of functional and spectroscopic MRI at 4.7 tesla

该研究项目正在开发用于极高磁场下 MRI 的新成像和光谱技术。  使用的场强为 4.7 特斯拉，是标准临床 MRI 机器的三倍。  这种三重 MRI 机器能够产生比标准临床 MRI 机器更好的图像。它是加拿大最高的人类使用场磁共振成像，仅用于研究。它对于理解人脑功能特别有用，但执行此操作的技术尚未开发出来。该项目将开发两种用于检查人类大脑功能的工具：功能性核磁共振成像和光谱成像。  这两种工具都有可能非常有用，但开发过程并不简单。  该开发需要电气工程、物理和计算知识来对 MRI 机器进行编程并了解信号如何随时间变化。  一旦开发出来，光谱成像方法将告诉我们大脑的化学运作情况，而功能性核磁共振方法将告诉我们大脑在执行设定任务时是如何被激活的。  该项目的总体目标是开发新技术，以便其他研究人员可以使用这种非常灵敏的三重 MRI 机器来探索大脑功能。

This research project is developing new imaging and spectroscopic techniques for MRI at a very high magnetic field.  The field strength used is 4.7 Tesla which is three times higher than a standard clinical MRI machine.  This triple-strength MRI machine is capable of producing better images than the standard clinical MRI machines. It is the highest field MRI in Canada for human use, and is only used for research. It is especially useful for understanding human brain function, but the techniques to perform this have not yet been developed. The project will develop two tools for examining human brain function called: functional MRI and spectroscopic imaging.  Both tools have the potential to be very useful, but the development process is not simple.  The development requires knowledge of electrical engineering, physics and computing to program the MRI machine and understand how the signals evolve in time.  Once developed, the spectroscopic imaging method will tell us about the chemical workings of the brain, while the functional MRI method will tell us about how the brain is activated when performing set tasks.  The overall goal of the project is to develop the new techniques so other researchers can then explore brain function using this very sensitive triple-strength MRI machine.