MRI: Acquisition of Eight-Channel Receiver System and RF Coils for Functional Neuroimaging

21世纪科学面临的一些最深的谜团涉及中枢神经系统的高级功能：感知、记忆、注意力、学习、语言、情感、人格、社会互动、决策、运动控制和意识。所有精神疾病（例如，焦虑症和抑郁症）、神经系统疾病（例如，帕金森病和阿尔茨海默病）和发育障碍（例如，阅读障碍和自闭症）都以大脑神经系统功能障碍为特征。事实上，人类行为的方方面面都是由大脑控制的。在过去的十年里，功能磁共振成像（fMRI）已经彻底改变了神经科学。它开创了一个新的研究时代，补充了测量动物神经元活动的更具侵入性的技术，以探索人类大脑的功能和功能障碍。FMRI使用的是核磁共振成像扫描仪，就像在全国各地的医疗诊所和医院里可以找到的那样，但经过重新编程，可以产生大脑功能和大脑解剖的图像。该奖项提供资金，允许纽约大学获得新的仪器，以升级现有的磁共振成像（MRI）扫描仪，用于基础科学脑成像研究。新仪器将被纳入纽约大学脑成像中心（CBI）的设施，该中心是一个共享研究中心，拥有西门子Allegra 3特斯拉MRI扫描仪以及执行功能磁共振成像研究所需的所有辅助设备。CBI位于大楼的底层，里面有心理、神经科学和物理系。该设施有150多名用户（教师、博士后、研究生和实验室技术人员），包括文理学院的8个系（心理学、神经科学、化学、物理、经济学、语言学、英语、政治学），医学院的3个系（神经病学、精神病学、放射学）和教育学院的一个系（物理治疗）。这项研究得到了超过25项联邦研究基金的支持。新的仪器将为CBI用户提供信噪比、空间分辨率、时间分辨率和大脑覆盖方面的改进，使目前不可能或不可行的实验成为可能。具体来说，CBI将使用该合同的资金购买一种新的8通道接收器系统和新的射频线圈。射频线圈的作用或多或少类似于核磁共振扫描仪的天线，可以“倾听”脑组织并测量大脑活动。增加信道的数量可以使用更多的射频线圈（更多的天线），从而提高接收信号的质量。因此，新的仪器将极大地利用脑成像中心高度协作的多学科研究、教学和培训计划。新的仪器将加强本科生、预科和博士后在CBI方面的研究训练。教学也将得到加强；参与项目的院系将在本科和研究生阶段提供一系列使用新仪器的课程。参与部门致力于在各级吸引妇女和代表性不足的群体。拟议的仪器无疑将有助于招聘，因为它将使CBI（和参与部门）与核磁共振成像和功能磁共振成像技术的一些最新进展保持同步，并使研究和培训处于最前沿，从而提高知名度。最后，该仪器将有助于基于功能磁共振成像技术进步的新跨学科领域的发展。

Some of the deepest mysteries facing science in the 21st century concern the higher functions of the central nervous system: perception, memory, attention, learning, language, emotion, personality, social interaction, decision-making, motor control, and consciousness. All psychiatric disorders (e.g., anxiety disorders and depression), neurological diseases (e.g., Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease), and developmental disorders (e.g., dyslexia and autism) are characterized by dysfunction of the neural systems in the brain. In fact, all aspects of human behavior are controlled by the human brain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized neuroscience over the past decade. It is allowing a new era of research, complementary to more invasive techniques for measuring neuronal activity in animals, to explore the function and dysfunction of the human brain. FMRI uses an MRI scanner, like those that can be found in medical clinics and hospitals around the country, but reprogrammed to yield a picture of brain function as well as brain anatomy. This award provides funds to permit New York University to acquire new instrumentation to upgrade an existing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner for basic-science brain imaging research. The new instrumentation will be incorporated into the facilities of the NYU Center for Brain Imaging (CBI), which is a shared research center that houses a Siemens Allegra 3 Tesla MRI scanner along with all of the ancillary equipment needed to perform fMRI research. CBI is located on the ground floor of the building that houses the Psychology, Neural Science, and Physics Departments. There are over 150 users of this facility (faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and lab techs) in 8 departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Psychology, Neural Science, Chemistry, Physics, Economics, Linguistics, English, Political Science), 3 departments in the School of Medicine (Neurology, Psychiatry, Radiology) and a department in the School of Education (Physical Therapy). The research is supported by over 25 federal research grants. The new instrumentation will provide CBI users with improvements in the signal-to-noise ratio, spatial resolution, temporal resolution, and brain coverage that will enable experiments that are currently impossible or infeasible. Specifically, with the funding from this award CBI will purchase a new 8-channel receiver system and new RF coils. The RF coils act more or less like the antenna of an MRI scanner to "listen" to brain tissue and measure of brain activity. Increasing the number of channels allows for the use of more RF coils (more antennas) that improves the quality of the received signals. . The new instrumentation will, therefore, greatly leverage the highly collaborative, multidisciplinary program of research, teaching, and training in the Center for Brain Imaging. Research training in CBI at the undergraduate, pre- and post-doctoral levels will be enhanced by the new instrumentation. Teaching will also be strengthened; the participating departments offer a series of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels that will make use of the new instrumentation. The participating departments are committed to attracting women and under-represented groups at all levels. The proposed instrumentation will surely help in recruiting, because it will enable CBI (and the participating departments) to keep current with some of the latest advances in MRI and fMRI technology, and enable the research and training to be cutting edge, thereby increasing visibility. Finally, the instrumentation will contribute to the development of new interdisciplinary fields based on the technological advance of fMRI.