Upgrade 3-Tesla MRT

柏林自由大学教育和心理学系的柏林认知神经科学中心(CCNB)自2009年以来一直配备了3特斯拉磁共振成像(MRI)扫描仪。核磁共振扫描仪形成了柏林自由大学的核心设施，使来自不同学科的科学家之间能够进行杰出的跨学科神经认知研究，如心理学、精神病学、神经和人文科学、神经语言学和神经经济学。到目前为止，来自6个部门的41个研究小组在250多项研究中检查了大约10,000名受试者，这些研究具有相当大的科学产出(在过去五年中约有50,000次引用)。然而，神经成像的快速发展以及计算神经科学领域的需求--这是CCNB的主要关注点--正将11年前安装的MRI系统推向其性能极限。该设备的硬件和软件都不是最先进的。这涉及梯度系统的效率、独立接收和激励通道的数量、射频(RF)系统、图像重建的计算能力以及制造商不再支持的软件平台。因此，尖端的MRI序列(如基本的多波段多回波序列或扩散加权成像)只能在技术规范的限制下使用，参数设置不是最优的。此外，今天可用的磁共振技术通过提高空间和时间分辨率以及诸如大脑分区的定向空间激发等创新，提供了数据质量的关键改进(包括信噪比的提高和图像失真的减少)。这项应用是为了升级CCNB的磁共振成像，使最先进的功能和结构成像的最新序列能够连续运行，并使用最新可用的磁共振技术，以确保方法的国际竞争力。升级也是必要的，以实现有时间效益和高效率的日常运作(特别是对特殊人群，例如儿童)，并满足日益增长的科学合作和多中心研究的要求。技术上和经济上最有利的解决方案是将仪器升级为采用通道射频技术的更强的梯度系统(80Mt/m)，其中主磁体保持不变。尽管如此，所有其他设备组件都会更新，软件平台也会升级到新一代。与购买新设备相比，此次升级的成本效益提高了50%。

The Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Berlin (CCNB) at the Department of Education and Psychology of Freie Universität Berlin has been equipped with a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner since 2009. The MRI scanner forms a core facility of Freie Universität Berlin enabling outstanding transdisciplinary neurocognitive research between scientists from various disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry, neuro- and human sciences, neurolinguistics and neuroeconomics. To date, about 10,000 subjects have been examined in more than 250 studies by more than 41 research groups from 6 departments with considerable scientific output (~50,000 citations in the last five years). However, rapid developments in neuroimaging and requirements in the field of computational neuroscience, a main focus at CCNB, are pushing the MRI system installed 11 years ago to its performance limits. Neither hardware nor software of the device is state-of-the-art. This concerns the efficiency of the gradient system, the number of independent receiving and excitation channels, the radio frequency (RF) system, the computing power for image reconstruction as well as the software platform, which is no longer supported by the manufacturer. As a result, cutting-edge MRI sequences (such as essential multiband multi-echo sequences or diffusion-weighted imaging) can only be used - if at all - at the limits of the technical specifications with suboptimal parameter settings. Furthermore, the MR technology available today provides crucial improvements in data quality (including a boost in the signal-to-noise ratio and reduction of image distortion) with an increase in spatial and temporal resolution as well as innovations such as the targeted spatial excitation of subareas of the brain. This application is for the upgrade of the MRI at the CCNB to enable the most up-to-date sequences in state-of-the-art functional and structural imaging in continuous operation and to use the newly available MR techniques to ensure international competitiveness in methods. The upgrade is also necessary to enable time-efficient and efficient daily operation (in particular for special populations, e.g., children), and to meet the increasing requirements for scientific collaborations and multicenter studies. The technically and economically most expedient solution is to upgrade the instrument to a stronger gradient system (80 mT/m) with 64-channel RF technology, in which the main magnet remains as is. Still, all other device components are renewed, and the software platform is upgraded to the new generation. Compared to the acquisition of a new device, this upgrade is 50% more cost-efficient.