MRI: Acquisition of Prisma 3T MRI Upgrade

该奖项是对乔治城大学3Tesla Siemens核磁共振扫描仪的重大升级，该扫描仪支持来自该地区8个不同机构(乔治城大学、天主教大学、儿童国家医学中心、加拉代特大学、乔治华盛顿大学、美国大学、国家康复医院和退伍军人管理局)的37名研究人员进行的创新神经成像研究。这次升级将提高获取的图像质量，并允许使用该扫描仪的研究人员利用MRI脉冲序列的最新发展，特别是为人类连接组项目开发的那些脉冲序列，这将为大脑功能的研究提供更好的时间分辨率，更好的空间分辨率，包括对轴突连接的细微差异的更高精度，以及通过磁共振波谱(MRS)更好地估计代谢物浓度。这些改进不仅将支持各种研究人员，还将为来自大华盛顿特区大都市区的高中生、本科生和研究生提供教育机会。大华盛顿特区大都市区包含不同的种族和社会经济人口。来自大华盛顿特区大都市区8个不同机构的研究人员使用乔治敦大学的西门子Magnetom TIM 3T磁共振扫描仪进行各种神经成像研究。其中一个研究领域专注于神经发展，研究内容包括奖励处理、执行功能、自闭症、阅读和数学困难，以及空间和创造性关系推理。另一个研究领域使用这种扫描仪来更好地理解与盲人个体的视觉注意、基于空间/对象的选择、躯体感觉学习和跨模式整合、感觉皮质组织和跨模式可塑性相关的基本神经过程。西门子PRISMA升级提供了两个新的射频磁头线圈(32通道和通道)，大大提高了信噪比(SNR)，并允许更大的扫描并行化，从而显著提高了该设施的能力。随着这一升级带来的信噪比提升，研究人员将在具有更高空间和时间分辨率的功能磁共振范例中拥有更大的灵活性。此外，使用人类Connectome Project脉冲序列的能力将大大提高使用基于体素的形态测量(VBM)和扩散张量成像(DTI)检测细微神经解剖差异的能力。

This award provides a substantial upgrade to Georgetown University's 3 Tesla Siemens MRI scanner, which supports the innovative neuroimaging research conducted by 37 researchers from 8 different institutions in the region including (Georgetown University, Catholic University, Children's National Medical Center, Gallaudet University, George Washington University, American University, National Rehabilitation Hospital, and the Veterans Administration). This upgrade will increase the quality of the images acquired and allow the researchers using this scanner to make use of the latest developments in MRI pulse sequences notably those developed for the Human Connectome Project, which will provide better temporal resolution for studies of brain function, better spatial resolution including greater precision with regards to subtle differences in axonal connectivity, and better estimation of metabolite concentration via magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). These improvements will support not only the various researchers but also provide educational opportunities for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students from across the greater Washington, DC metro region that encompasses a diverse ethnic and socioeconomic population.Researchers from 8 different institutions in the greater Washington, DC metro region conduct a wide variety of neuroimaging research using the Siemens Magnetom Tim 3T MRI scanner at Georgetown University. One area of research focuses on neurodevelopment with studies examining reward processing, executive function, autism, reading and math difficulties, and spatial and creative relational reasoning. Another area of research uses this scanner to better understand basic neurological processes related to visual attention, spatial/object-based selection, somatosensory learning and cross-modal integration, sensory cortical organization, and cross-modal plasticity in blind individuals. The Siemens Prisma upgrade significantly increases the capabilities of this facility by providing two new radio frequency head coils, a 32- and 64-channel, that greatly increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as well as allow for greater scanning parallelization. With the boost in SNR afforded by this upgrade, investigators will have greater flexibility in their functional MRI paradigms with higher spatial and temporal resolution. In addition, the ability to use the Human Connectome Project pulse sequences will greatly improve the power to detect subtle neuroanatomic differences using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).