MRI: Acquisition of a high-density EEG/TCS device for the observation and modulation of brain activity

大脑影响人们是谁；人们如何看、听、闻，他们如何移动、触摸和交谈，他们如何记忆和忘记，他们如何感受、期待和计划。了解大脑及其所有神经元和相互连接是如何产生复杂行为的，这是一个巨大的科学挑战，而现代技术在这一努力中不可或缺。该项目将使一种新的最先进的仪器在罗格斯大学纽瓦克可用。该仪器使大脑研究人员不仅能够以无与伦比的时空保真度测量人类的大脑活动，还可以通过通过头皮传递小电流来调节这种活动。该仪器将被广泛的研究人员使用，并为心理学、生物医学工程和神经科学系的学生提供培训机会，以及各级学生；从高中暑期实习生到研究生研究员。这种培训的影响预计将在罗格斯大学纽瓦克分校特别广泛，因为它的学生群体异常多样化，而且有大量项目专注于增加未被充分代表的少数民族的参与。新仪器可以记录和调节磁共振成像扫描仪内的脑电活动。它的256个小电极具有执行高密度脑电和高密度经颅电流刺激的能力。这解决了认知大脑研究中标准方法的三个缺点。首先，该仪器将补充基于功能成像的缓慢但空间精确的大脑活动记录，同时测量快速变化的电活动。这将使研究人员能够研究人类感知、思维和行动的基本生理学。其次，该仪器可以以安全和非侵入性的方式调节大脑活动。这创造了一个强大的研究范式来研究大脑区域的因果作用。第三，新仪器将帮助在动物和人类神经科学方法之间架起桥梁，通过在人类身上非侵入性地获得实验数据，这些数据可以更直接地与在动物身上获得的数据进行比较。具体的新项目将侧重于通过经颅刺激改善知觉，振荡在记忆形成和睡眠中的作用，前额叶和纹状体区域在奖励处理中的相互作用，以及心脏的快速神经控制，仅举几例。该设备实现的研究的变革性方面是高空间和时间分辨率脑成像的结合，以及对大脑活动的积极操纵的关注，使研究人员能够超越相关性，转向对大脑功能的因果理解。

Brains influence who people are; how people see, hear, and smell, how they move, touch, and talk, how they remember and forget, how they feel, expect, and plan. Understanding how the brain, with all its neurons and interconnections, generates complex behavior is a tremendous scientific challenge and modern technology is indispensable in this endeavor. This project will make a new state-of-the-art instrument available at Rutgers University - Newark. The instrument allows brain researchers to not only measure brain activity in humans with unsurpassed spatio-temporal fidelity, but also modulate that activity by passing small electrical currents through the scalp. The instrument will be used by a broad range of researchers, and offer training opportunities to students across departments of Psychology, Biomedical Engineering, and Neuroscience, and at all levels; ranging from high-school summer interns to postgraduate research fellows. The impact of this training is expected to be particularly broad at Rutgers University - Newark due to its exceptionally diverse student body and the large number of programs focused on increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities.The new instrument can record and modulate electrical brain activity inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Its 256 small electrodes have the capability to perform high-density electroencephalography as well as high-density transcranial current stimulation. This addresses three shortcomings of standard approaches in cognitive brain research. First, the instrument will complement the slow, but spatially precise recording of brain activity based on functional imaging with the simultaneous measurement of rapidly changing electrical activity. This will allow researchers to study the fundamental physiology of perception, thought, and action in humans. Second, the instrument can modulate brain activity in a safe and noninvasive manner. This creates a powerful research paradigm to investigate the causal role of brain areas. Third, the new instrument will help build bridges between animal and human neuroscience approaches by obtaining experimental data noninvasively in humans that can be compared more directly with those obtained in animals. Specific new projects will focus on improving perception using transcranial stimulation, the role of oscillations in memory formation and sleep, the interaction among prefrontal and striatal areas in reward processing, and the rapid neural control of the heart, to name just a few. The transformative aspect of the research enabled by this device is the combination of high spatial and temporal resolution brain imaging and the focus on active manipulations of brain activity that allow researchers to move beyond correlation and towards a causal understanding of brain function.