Simplifying fMRI Integration in the Cognitive Neurosciences

描述(申请人提供)：在过去的二十年里，功能磁共振成像已经发展成为一种在基础生物行为研究中广泛使用的技术。由于认知神经科学领域的增长，这项技术的用户基础不断增加，随着功能磁共振成像应用于大规模多站点研究、转化性研究和临床试验，这一增长有望加速。为了观察与功能相关的神经反应，有必要进行实验，在提供听觉/视觉刺激的同时测量大脑活动，并记录行为反应。此外，控制这些行为实验的软件必须小心地与磁共振扫描仪本身的功能同步。因此，建设功能磁共振研究的能力涉及对基础设施的大量投资，这些基础设施用于音频/视觉刺激呈现、行为反应记录以及这些设备与磁共振设备的同步。然而，这个基础设施和控制行为实验的软件之间的关键接口通常是临时的，使用起来很复杂，而且容易失败。行为实验是功能磁共振成像中功能评估的核心。这在研究的开发和执行的多个阶段造成了耗时且昂贵的困难，并且产生了一组在负责管理、运行和维护MR中心的物理学家、放射科医生和技术人员的核心能力和培训之外的技术问题。我们建议创建一个通用的软件/硬件接口，这将极大地简化现有功能磁共振研究站点的研究开发和实施。该设备将提供坚固的、固定的、 各种实验控制软件与所有广泛使用的MR系统之间的标准化、灵活和直观的接口。一旦开发出最低限度的可行产品，我们将在活跃的功能磁共振研究中心测试其有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over the last two decades, fMRI has evolved into a widely used technology in basic biobehavioral research. The user base for this technology continues to increase due to the growth of the field of cognitive neuroscience, and this increase is poised to accelerate with adoption of fMRI to large-scale multi-site studies, translational studies, and clinical trials. In order to observe functionally relevant neural responses, it is necessary to conduct experiments in which brain activity is measured while audio/visual stimuli are presented, and behavioral responses are recorded. Further, the software controlling these behavioral experiments must be carefully synchronized with the functioning of the MR scanner itself. Thus, building capacity for fMRI research involves a massive investment in infrastructure for specialized hardware for audio/visual stimulus presentation, behavioral response recording and synchronization of these devices with the MR equipment. And yet, the critical interface between this infrastructure and the software that controls the behavioral experiments, that are the core of the functional assessments in fMRI, is often ad hoc, complicated to use and prone to failure. This creates time-consuming and expensive difficulties at multiple stages of the development and execution of studies, and creates a set of technical problems that are outside the core capabilities and training of the physicists, radiologists and technicians responsible for managing, running and maintaining the MR center. We propose to create a universal software/hardware interface that will dramatically streamline the development and implementation of studies at existing fMRI research sites. The device will provide a sturdy, fixed, standardized, flexible and intuitive interface between a wide variety of experimental control software and all widely used MR systems. Once a minimal viable product is developed, we will test its efficacy in an active fMRI research center.