This proposal requests funds for acquisition of a high density (32 channel) radio frequency (RF) receiver (HDRFR) system for a 3 Tesla (T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) scanner. The HDRFR will be interfaced with the existing 3T MRI system, which is a 100% dedicated scanner for research on human subjects and animals, in order to better understand brain structure and function as applies to mental health and to search for new treatments of neuropsychiatric disorders. It will become part of the scanner that is located in the MRI Research Center (MRC) of the Psychiatry Department of Columbia University (CU) and New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI), one of the largest psychiatric research- teaching hospitals in the world, and one that supports one of the most accomplished neuroscience research programs in the country. More than 1000 scientists and staff at NYSPI conduct cutting-edge research on serious neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, autism, depression, and bipolar disorder. The 32 channel RF receivers combined with our in-house RF coil design and construction capability, pulse sequence development team, and image processing lab will (1) substantially increase signal to noise ratio (SNR) from human head which will allow construction of higher resolution (sub-millimeter) images, (2) enable much faster imaging which will reduce scan time up to 5-fold. This is the most important benefit of the 32 channel receiver for studies involving psychiatric patients. (3) reduce some of the debilitating artifacts for brain studies, such as those at the base of the skull and in orbitofrontal and mesial temporal cortices, areas of great interest in the study of human neuropsychiatric illness, (4) increase sensitivity of MRS, allowing acquisition of substantially stronger signal in 1H spectroscopy data for vitally important molecules, such as GABA, that have inherently low SNR, (5) allow high resolution fMRI studies capable of achieving both higher temporal and spatial resolution, (6) utilize our ability of building 32 channel coils of various sizes to be used with the 32 channel receivers which will allow much higher SNR to be achieved for our pediatric and neurodevelment studies, (7) significantly improve the quality of T1-weighted 3D spoiled gradient recalled sequence (SPGR) that is extensively used in neuroscience studies for coregistration, volumetric, and the segmentation. SPGR and echo planar imaging (EPI) will specially benefit from ability to achieve much shorter echo times (TE) and further enhance SNR to obtain much higher resolution images. Overall, a 32 channel receiver will significantly enhance the imaging tools available to our investigators whose research breadth has enabled them to secure nearly $100M of annual external research funding.
MRI suffers from low speed and image artifacts. The 32 channel receivers that we will acquire through this grant will drastically enhance MRI's capability in helping with understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders. This is highly significant as mental illness is very prevalent in the United States affecting 50 percent of the population over their lifetime.
