Image Acquisition

Department: Robarts Research

Award Value: Reduced Rate

The purpose of this project is to develop methods to perform high resolution resting-state functional connectivity studies. As generally used in cognitive neuroscience, fMRI and functional connectivity studies are done at relatively low spatial resolution, with the objective of studing the macro-scale networks of the human brain. However, the ability to perform functional connectivity analysis on a layer by layer basis or a columnar basis opens up the possibility of examining inputs and outputs to a cortical area in addition to the macro-scale connectivity. This will be done both in nonhuman primates and in human subjects. These methods will also be extended to columnar resting-state connectivity experiments to understand how columns communicate with one another.

It involves the use of fMRI to characterize the circuits that give rise to behaviour on a spatial scale that has never been possible before using a noninvasive technology. Such approaches will be very useful in the study of the local function of circuits in both healthy brain and in patient populations.

Department: Robarts Research

Award Value: Reduced Rate

The purpose of this project is to develop new hardware and software for neurological MRI of small animals at 9.4 Tesla to enable novel investigations of cognition and animal models of disease. The goals are to eliminate distortions and blurring that typically affect MRI (particularly at high field strengths), reduce scan times, and develop new methods to measure physiological meaningful parameters (e.g., microscopic fractional anisotropy). MRI scanning time will be used for hardware or sequence development, validation of new hardware/software in custom phantoms, and scanning in healthy animals.

New imaging methods will be developed to create new imaging biomarkers of cognitive function and disease progression, as well as inform on microstructural changes that occur due to learning and/or disease and how they are linked to cognitive measures.

Department: Robarts Research

Award Value: Reduced Rate

The purpose of this project is to develop new methods for neurological diffusion MRI to enable new investigations into cognition and disease. The goals are to eliminate distortions and blurring that typically affect diffusion MRI (particularly at high field strengths), reduce scan times, and develop new methods to measure physiological meaningful parameters. MRI scanning time will be used for sequence development, validation of diffusion MRI based microstructural models, and assessment in healthy human volunteers.

New imaging methods will be developed to create new biomarkers of cognitive function and disease progression, as well as inform on microstructural changes that occur due to learning and/or disease. This applied work in future projects will involve collaboration with clinicians and neuroscientists.

Department: Robarts Research

Award Value: Reduced Rate

The overall goal of this transformative program is to develop a novel imaging & analysis technique for quantifying cortical architecture, providing a means to characterize and quantify structural features that have been thus far “invisible” to MRI. The novel approach we are taking will fuse complementary measurements of structure, using high-resolution cortical surface reconstruction with joint modelling of diffusion MRI, to specifically model the radial and tangential architecture of neuronal bodies in the cortex, providing a new set of multi-modal quantitative indices. This technique could have wide-ranging applications, not only in understanding of subject-specific cytoarchitectonic mapping for neuroscientific questions, but in improving our ability to detect subtle cortical abnormalities in brain disorders such as epilepsy, autism, and schizophrenia. The critical, foundational milestone that must be achieved first is the development and validation of this technique, using simulations, phantom experiments and post-mortem imaging.

This work will develop and validate a novel technique for quantifying cortical structure, using a model that is informed by state-of-the-art approaches in morphometry, quantitative MRI, and computational diffusion MRI. The work has great potential to discover structural biomarkers of brain disorders and potentially provide a means for more precise guidance of surgical therapies.

Department: Robarts Research

Award Value: Internally Funded Reduced Rate

We have developed a k-space based spherical navigator (SNAV) method to detect bulk motion in 6 DoF. By registering the navigator data acquired at the moved position with navigator templates collected at a reference position we have been able to demonstrate that the SNAV technique can correct for bulk motions with <1 degree and <1 mm accuracy. Both the acquisition and analysis algorithms have been optimized and we have demonstrated retrospective motion correction.

We aim to extend this work by implementing real-time B0 field mapping technique, modeling of the changes of B0 for different head motions and incorporating these models, along with the real time maps, into an active shimming algorithm, and expanding the range of motion that can be tracked. Incorporation into different pulse sequences may be explored as well. For example, we aim to incorporate the SNAV into spectroscopy acquisitions in collaboration with R. Bartha. The impact of improved motion correction is broad and well understood.

Department: Robarts Research

Award Value: Internally Funded Reduced Rate

We are exploring a novel phase-based approach designed specifically to exploit the discriminatory properties of thrombus, hemorrhage, and plaque composition in patients with cerebrovascular disease and stroke. The approach is based on our developments related to analyzing multi-channel ME-GRE images. We utilize a single sequence with two sets of echo trains: a train of 5 echoes with short echo times used to map B0 inhomogeneity, T2*, and to separate fat and water, followed by a second – susceptibility sensitive-echo train for quantification of local frequency shift and susceptibility. We aim to demonstrate that MR-derived quantitative metrics can be used to identify thrombus etiology in stroke patients (knowing the etiology is important in preventing secondary strokes) and distinguish plaque components.

The scan protocol we have identified can be acquired in approximately 5 minutes to cover the whole brain and if we are successful will be easy to translate to the clinic because it uses routinely available pulse sequences.

Department: Robarts Research

Award Value: Internally Funded Reduced Rate

Our imaging project is focused on the development and testing of cross-platform spine imaging metrics. Quantitative measurements of degenerative spinal phenotypes from standardized MR acquisition protocols designed to support inter-scanner comparability will be tested for 3T inter-scanner reliability and precision. Such standardized protocols, practical for both research and clinical use, have not been established to date and could serve as the foundation for long-awaited, widely available quantitative measurements of degenerative phenotypes involving the intervertebral disc and other spinal tissues. Such measurements are needed to advance knowledge of etiology, pathogenesis and prognosis, including treatment effects, related to disc degeneration and pathology. If successful, the MR acquisition protocol and related measurements will enable a variety of long awaited studies in these areas. It can also be expected that, if successful, the standardized acquisition protocol will be widely adopted for common spinal disorders research.

Dr. Battié will be supporting this research using start-up funding for her position as Western Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Mobility, Exercise and Health, as she sees such measurement advances as critical to launching many other projects. We would expect to publish aspects of the methodological study in a leading spine journal and imaging journal.