STTR Phase I: fMRI Dynamic Phantom for Improved Detection of Resting-State Brain Networks

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是显着提高静息态功能磁共振成像的检测灵敏度。近年来，大规模（1.5亿美元至12亿美元）和长期（10-12年）国际投资（例如，NIH人类连接组计划、白宫大脑计划、英国生物银行、欧盟人类大脑计划）已经将人类功能磁共振成像的范围扩展到包括更快的脉冲序列和更复杂的分析工具、更高的场强、与多尺度实验和建模的集成以及对跨多个扫描仪/研究站点的数据集成的强调。这一代功能磁共振成像研究超越了最初的简单模型，专注于激活地图，调查连接，网络和动态非线性电路在大脑中。新的思维方式正在被应用于我们对社会利益影响最大的一些领域，从临床抑郁症，成瘾，自闭症和脑损伤，到基于年龄的认知退化。然而，虽然功能磁共振成像研究大大加快，质量保证协议的MRI机器需要产生这些结果已经远远落后，依赖于静态幻影协议不再完全能够针对质量控制问题相关的当前和新兴的应用。斯托尼布鲁克动态幻影旨在解决这一迫切需要。拟议项目建立在第一代动态体模工作原型（专利申请中）的基础上，对第二代原型进行必要的工程改进，以提高其耐用性和可靠性，为商业化做准备。从体模硬件和软件的角度来看，第I阶段中提出的六个目标与提高精度、准确度、可靠性/再现性和可用性相关。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to dramatically improve the detection sensitivity of resting-state fMRI. In recent years, large-scale ($150M- $1.2B USD) and long-term (10-12 year) international investments (e.g., NIH Human Connectome Project, White House BRAIN Initiative, UK Biobank, EU Human Brain Project) have expanded the reach of human fMRI to include faster pulse sequences and more complex analytic tools, higher field strength, integration with multi-scale experiments and modeling, and an emphasis on integration of data across multiple scanner/study sites. This generation of fMRI studies goes beyond the original simplistic models that focused upon activation maps, to investigate connections, networks, and dynamic nonlinear circuits in the brain. New ways of thinking are being applied to some of our highest-impact areas of societal interest, ranging from clinical depression, addiction, autism, and brain injury, to age-based cognitive degeneration. However, while fMRI research dramatically accelerates, quality assurance protocols for the MRI machines needed to generate these findings have lagged far behind, relying upon static phantom protocols no longer fully capable of targeting quality control issues relevant to current and emerging applications. The Stony Brook Dynamic Phantom is designed to address this urgent need. The proposed project builds upon a 1st generation working prototype of the dynamic phantom (patent pending), to develop engineering improvements in the 2nd generation prototype necessary to increase its durability and reliability in preparation for commercialization. The six objectives addressed in Phase I are associated with increasing precision, accuracy, reliability/reproducibility, and usability from the perspectives of both the phantom's hardware and software.