Parallel MRI for Substance Abuse Research

描述(由申请人提供)： 这是一位独立科学家奖(K02)的申请者，他是一名物理学家，致力于医疗保健研究。他的专长是开发技术来解决脑磁共振成像、快速成像、图像重建和功能磁共振成像(FMRI)方面的局限性。这些限制包括磁化率伪影。易感性伪影会在许多重要的大脑区域产生信号丢失，包括腹侧纹状体、杏仁核、眼眶额叶皮质、基底节和伏隔核。这些大脑区域对奖赏处理和决策至关重要，很可能与常见的情感和成瘾障碍的风险增加有关，包括药物滥用和依赖。在过去的六年里，这位候选人作为一名独立的、由NIH资助的研究员进行了这项工作。这位候选人是NIMH的两项R01拨款和NIDA的一项R21拨款的首席研究员，也是使用他的技术的其他五项与脑功能磁共振相关的拨款的联合调查员。然而，在候选人的研究生涯中，一个不幸的限制是缺乏生物学和神经科学的知识，以及它与药物滥用等临床相关问题的关系。申请人开发的新方法与其在用功能磁共振研究临床人群方面的真实效果之间存在很大差距。这个应用程序的目标是允许候选人解决他的研究事业发展中缺失的这一部分，以及继续挑战他的方法论的极限。申请者将参加他的专业领域以外的会议，如神经科学和药物成瘾。候选人还将接受指导，每天与使用核磁共振技术进行药物成瘾研究的领先专家合作。他还将为初级物理学家和临床医生提供MRI方法学方面的指导。该计划包括负责任的研究行为方面的持续培训。候选人将追求以下研究目标：1)开发快速、并行的脑功能磁共振成像方法，在高场下减少敏感性伪影；2)验证全脑功能磁共振成像的新采集；以及3)作为职业培训活动的一部分，将这些技术应用于临床甲基苯丙胺使用者群体，以改进对下脑区域(如OFC)奖励和决策的功能磁共振研究。该奖项的成功资助将确保申请者在接下来的五年中摆脱服务和行政责任，这样他就可以将至少75%的时间用于研究、指导和扩大他的研究专长。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application for an Independent Scientist Award (K02) from a candidate who is a physicist and has devoted his career to healthcare research. His expertise is in developing techniques to address limitations in brain MRI, rapid imaging, image reconstruction, and functional MRI (fMRI). These limitations include magnetic susceptibility artifacts. Susceptibility artifacts produce signal loss in many important brain regions including the ventral striatum, amygdala, orbital frontal cortex, basal ganglia, and nucleus accumbens. These brain regions are crucial to reward processing and decision-making and are likely to be associated with an increased risk of common emotional and addictive disorders including substance abuse and dependence. The candidate has conducted this work over the past six years as an independent, NIH funded investigator. The candidate is a Principal Investigator on two R01 grants from NIMH, one R21 grant from NIDA, and is a Co-Investigator on five other grants related to brain fMRI that use his techniques. One unfortunate limitation in the candidate's research career, however, is a deficiency in knowledge of biology and neuroscience and its relationships to clinically relevant problems such as substance abuse. There is a large gap between the novel methods developed by the applicant and their true efficacy in studying clinical populations with fMRI. The goal of this application is to allow the candidate to addresses this missing piece in his research career development as well as to continue pushing the envelope of his methodologies. The applicant will attend conferences that are outside of his domain of expertise such as in neuroscience and drug addiction. The candidate will also receive mentorship by working daily with leading experts in drug addiction research using MRI. He will also provide mentorship in MRI methodology to junior physicists and clinicians. The plan includes ongoing training in the responsible conduct of research. The candidate will pursue the following research objectives: 1) Develop rapid, parallel imaging methods for brain fMRI with reduced susceptibility artifacts at high field, 2) validate the novel acquisitions for whole brain fMRI, and 3), as part of a career training activity, apply the techniques to improve fMRI studies of reward and decision in inferior brain regions (such as the OFC) to a clinical population of methamphetamine users. Successful funding of this award will ensure that the applicant is freed up from service and administrative responsibilities for the next five years so that he can spend at least 75 percent of his time on research, mentorship, and expanding his research expertise.