Creating impact by advancing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
In the U-FIHT project, the Donders Institute, MR Coils and MR Code bundle their strengths and expertise to innovate in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) for neuro-related purposes. FMRI is a powerful tool that is widely applied in cognitive neuroimaging and medicine. Hitherto, fMRI acquisition has been forced to make compromises between temporal and spatial resolution. Consequently, insightful information of patient’s brain, generated with fMRI, suffers from a number of confounds that reduce its value in medical practice. This is unfortunate since the technique has great potential in the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson’s Disease.
The U-FIHT consortium will eliminate current limitations in spatial and temporal resolution of fMRI acquisition. Firstly, novel hardware developments that are complementary to existing Magnetic Resonance (MR) systems will be implemented in order to increase both speed and sensitivity off MRI. Next, a technique known as Multiband Echo-Shifted EPI (MESH) will be adapted and transferred to the new hardware and further developed in order to achieve both high temporal as well as high spatial resolution. Finally, improvement of fMRI performance will be investigated and the integrated technology will be validated.
The project will result in an integrated innovative technology to advance fMRI. This advanced imaging application has the benefit that -in contrast to the standalone hardware device–both spatial as well as temporalresolution of the images is enabled. With these characteristics, the product is able to accelerate patient imaging and realise a more comprehensive set and quality of brain images. Radiologists and caregivers receive access to more in-depth information on the brain and ongoing processes, patients can be diagnosed more accurately. In addition to improved and less-invasive diagnosis, the research and resulting product makes it possible to improve our knowledge of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer, due to the ability to monitor patients and register brain activity and responses overtime while performing specific tasks.
