By Sidney Taiko Sheehan
An NIH-funded team led by Danny JJ Wang, PhD, of the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (USC INI), has developed a new technology that can help with the complex and intricate task of mapping brain activity, which is key to understanding dynamic activities of neural circuits — connections between brain cells across cortical layers and among brain regions.
This new method developed by Xingfeng Shao, PhD, called zoomed 7T perfusion functional MRI (fMRI), was brought to life in a video by the USC INI’s medical animator Jim Stanis. The video was chosen by the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) High Field Study Group Clinical Potential of Ultra High Field (UHF) Challenge. A paper on this method featuring several members of the INI has been posted online in in NeuroImage.
Wang and INI Director Arthur W. Toga, PhD, are honored to have a section of the video, Ultrahigh Field MRI – The Value of Fine-Grained Examination, featured on the NIH Director’s Blog. Learn more about 7T fMRI and read what NIH’s Dr. Francis Collins has to say about the INI’s groundbreaking work.
Ultrahigh Field MRI – The Value of Fine-Grained Examination: