MRI: Acquisition of 512-channel integrated stimulation and recording system for human neurophysiology

这项主要仪器设备拨款支持纽约大学综合癫痫中心（CEC）为人类神经生理学研究获得512通道综合刺激和记录系统。每年，在CEC有50-80名患者接受颅内电极监测和手术切除脑组织来治疗难治性癫痫。该手术包括在颅骨上做一个小的开颅手术，并在大脑中植入电极，用于(1)监测癫痫发作时大脑的神经生理活动，(2)刺激大脑的不同区域，以了解它们对认知、感觉和运动任务的重要性。有了这些信息，临床医生就可以做出明智的决定，确定哪些大脑区域可以安全切除，以治疗患者的癫痫，同时保留关键功能。在患者的大脑中暂时植入电极，为研究人类认知和癫痫提供了独特的机会，这是用大脑成像等非侵入性工具无法做到的。随着电极技术的快速发展，每个植入装置中的电极数量不断增加，为研究人员提供了有关正常认知和疾病中大脑功能的更详细信息。为了最大限度地利用每个电极提供的信息，它需要独立地连接到刺激和记录系统。目前，CEC的临床系统无法同时支持临床和研究设备中的电极总数，导致研究数据的妥协。此外，一些新的电极技术与当前的系统不兼容。因此，有价值的信息丢失了。该合同将使CEC能够购买一种能够测量和刺激512个孤立电极通道的设备，确保没有信息丢失，并承诺对大脑功能进行更详细和完整的了解。纽约大学已经围绕人类颅内电极患者群体建立了一个非常富有成效的研究项目。研究主要集中在理解人类大脑中的语言、记忆、睡眠和癫痫。虽然这项研究的临床价值是明确的，但这项工作也为人类大脑的“正常”功能提供了见解，因此属于国家科学基金会支持的科学范围。例如，研究CEC的科学家们已经能够对诸如语言是如何被大脑处理的，以及记忆是如何在睡眠中形成并随后加强的等问题提供深刻的见解。CEC的颅内研究项目是高度合作的，涉及与纽约大学以及全国多个研究机构的科学家和临床医生的合作。患者参与感觉、认知和运动任务，研究人员通过测量大脑活动来了解认知的神经基础。该奖项不仅将扩大研究人员可以从单个患者身上测量的信息量，而且还将使他们能够在任务执行过程中刺激和干扰大脑，以揭示以前无法在人类身上获得的因果脑-行为关系。此外，与CEC合作的研究人员的技术专长和兴趣范围广泛，包括人类的非侵入性神经成像和动物的新型电极技术。将许多人类颅内记录通道与动物模型中的跨物种电生理记录进行比较的能力，将扩大转化研究的能力，加快医学技术在实验室中的发展步伐，并可被带到床边，以改善临床护理。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Major Instrumentation Grant supports the acquisition of a 512-channel integrated stimulation and recording system for human neurophysiology research at the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center (CEC). Each year, 50-80 patients at the CEC undergo intracranial electrode monitoring and surgical removal of brain tissue to treat medically refractory epilepsy. The surgery involves making a small craniotomy in the skull and implanting electrodes in the brain that are used (1) to monitor neurophysiological brain activity during seizures and (2) to stimulate different regions of brain to understand their importance for cognitive, sensory and motor tasks. With this information, clinicians make informed decisions on what regions of the brain can be safely removed to treat the patients' epilepsy, while sparing critical functions. Having patients with electrodes temporarily implanted in their brain enables the unique opportunity to study both human cognition and epilepsy in a manner that is not possible with non-invasive tools such as brain imaging. With rapid improvements in electrode technology, the number of electrodes in each implanted device continues to grow and offers researchers even more detailed information about brain function in normal cognition and disease. To maximize the information available from each electrode, it needs to be independently connected to a stimulation and recording system. At present, the clinical system at the CEC cannot support the total number of electrodes in both clinical and research devices, leading to compromises in the research data. Moreover, some newer electrode technologies are not compatible with the current system. Thus, valuable information is lost. This award will enable the CEC to purchase a piece of equipment that has the capacity to measure from and stimulate 512 isolated electrode channels, ensuring no information is lost and bearing the promise of a more detailed and complete understanding of brain function. NYU has built an incredibly productive research program around the human intracranial electrode patient population. Research is broadly focused on understanding language, memory, sleep, and epilepsy in the human brain. While the clinical value of the research is clear, the work also provides insight into the "normal" functioning of the human brain and thus falls within the scope of NSF supported science. For example, scientists working with the CEC have been able to provide deep insight into questions such as how language is processed by the brain and how memories are formed and subsequently strengthened during sleep. The intracranial research program at the CEC is highly collaborative and involves partnerships with scientists and clinicians across NYU as well as at multiple research institutes around the country. Patients are engaged in sensory, cognitive, and motor tasks and researchers measure activity in the brain to understand the neural basis of cognition. This award will not only expand the amount of information researchers can measure from a single patient, but also enable them to stimulate and perturb the brain during task performance to uncover causal brain-behavior relationships previously inaccessible in humans. Moreover, the technical expertise and interests of the collaborative group of researchers working with the CEC span a wide range and include non-invasive neuroimaging in humans and novel electrode technologies in animals. The capability to compare many channels of human intracranial recording with cross-species electrophysiological recordings in animal models will expand capabilities for translational research and accelerate the pace at which medical technology develops in the lab and can be brought to the bedside to improve clinical care.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.