Multi-modal brain imaging analysis method for brain modeling

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The primary goal of the proposed research program is to develop and improve the brain imaging analysis methods. The emergence of brain imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) significantly contributed to broadening our knowledge about how the brain functions. For example, with injection of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG; the most widely used radiotracer for PET), we can locate where glucose is rapidly metabolized which is related with the level of neuronal activity in particular conditions that the subject is scanned under. Although illuminating, one of the limitations of the typical FDG-PET technique is that one cannot model the region-to-region connectivity. In other words, it is difficult to model the brain as a network where distant brain regions are communicating with each other.