EAGER: Magnetometer Arrays to Map Brain Circuitry

提案标题：EAGER：磁强计阵列绘制脑电路图机构：犹他州大学摘要日期：2014年4月9日拟议的室温磁强计阵列将使无数应用于发现新的大脑电路和了解大脑疾病。目前，在非常有限的环境中，成像人类大脑活动的能力是通过功能性磁共振成像或脑电图术或磁脑图术实现的。它还将把生物传感的前沿推进到只有超导量子干涉装置(SQUID)和原子蒸气磁强计才能达到的更高的灵敏度水平。具有较少器件的磁强计阵列可以用来检测癫痫的发作，并将在无线健康监测设备中得到广泛的应用。磁力计阵列将在将大脑电路和活动与行为联系起来方面产生巨大影响；它将使大脑能够在充满压力的条件下成像，类似于心血管系统的压力测试。这项研究将由两名研究生进行(其中一名学生来自代表性不足的群体)，研究结果将被广泛传播并用于演示生物磁学、生物传感和生物反馈的原理。将开发一种新的成像方法，能够以100微米的分辨率和1ms的时间分辨率进行全脑成像，并且完全便携和无线。将设计和制造具有10^-18Tesla/Hz0.5灵敏度的小(200微米)、低功耗(10NW/器件)的室温微型机电多铁磁强计阵列。这些阵列将被屏蔽并嵌入到帽子中，将能够在我们的自然环境中对人类的大脑活动进行成像。该项目已经建造出了灵敏度高于10^-15Tesla/Hz0.5的原型，该项目将通过无源和主动(反馈)屏蔽降低传感器噪声来提高灵敏度，构建可组合在一起实现全脑覆盖的10,000个磁力计的直线阵列，并构建用于与阵列进行无线通信的遥测系统。阵列将通过前所未有的视觉皮质时空分辨率进行验证，从而允许对方向和眼优势柱进行高速成像。

Proposal Title: EAGER: Magnetometer Arrays to Map Brain CircuitryInstitution: University of UtahAbstract Date:04/09/2014The proposed room temperature magnetometer arrays will enable innumerable applications in discoveries of new brain circuits and understanding brain ailments. The ability to image brain activities in behaving humans currently is carried out by functional magnetic resonance imaging or electro-encephalography or magnet-encephalography in very constrained environments. It will also advance the frontiers of biosensing to a much higher sensitivity levels only accessible by superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID) and atomic vapor magnetometers. Magnetometer arrays with a fewer devices can be used to detect the onset of epilepsy and will find numerous applications in wireless health monitoring devices. The magnetometer array will have enormous impact in relating brain circuitry and activity to behavior; it will enable imaging the brain under stressfull conditions similar to the stress test for the cardiovascular system. The research will be carried out by two graduate students (one of the students is from an underrepresented group) and the results will be widely disseminated and used demonstrating the principles of bio-magnetism, bio-sensing and bio feedback. A novel imaging method capable of whole brain imaging at 100 micron resolution and 1 ms temporal resolution that is fully portable and wireless will be developed. Arrays of small (200 micron), low power (10 nW/device) room temperature micro-electromechanical multiferroic magnetometers with 10^-18 Tesla/Hz0.5 sensitivity will be designed and fabricated. These arrays will be shielded and embedded in a cap and will enable imaging brain activity in behaving humans in our natural environment. Prototypes have already been constructed that perform at better than 10^-15 Tesla/Hz0.5 sensitivity and this project will improve sensitivity by reducing sensor noise with passive and active (feedback) shielding, construct rectilinear arrays of 10,000 magnetometers that can be combined for full brain coverage, and construct telemetry system for wireless communication with the array. Arrays will be validated by unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution of visual cortex allowing high-speed imaging of orientation and ocular dominance columns.