Brain activity resulting from neuronal excitation is distributed over the 3-dimensional volume and evolves in time. There is a strong need to map the spatio-temporal distributions of brain activation noninvasively. The proposed project aims at developing a groundbreaking technology for neuroimaging of brain activity with high resolution in both space and time. The successful completion of the proposed exploratory project may lead to a transformative neuroimaging modality that would change the practice of functional neuroimaging and offer an extremely desirable high spatio-temporal resolution neuroimaging capability to noninvasively map dynamic neural information processing within the brain at neural circuits level. Such capability will have the potential to transform the current state-of-art that neuroimaging is carried out using separate modalities that can map brain activity either with high spatial or high temporal resolution, but unable to map dynamic brain activation with both high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution. This is of significant impact to human brain mapping, a grand challenge in the BRAIN Initiative.
The PIs propose to develop a novel hybrid multimodal neuroimaging technology "acousto-electromagnetic neuroimaging" by fully integrating focused ultrasound with electromagnetic sensing and imaging for mapping dynamic brain activation. The proposed imaging technology has the potential to achieve millimeter spatial resolution and millisecond temporal resolution in a single hybrid neuroimaging system for mapping brain activation noninvasively in subjects throughout the lifespan. The central hypothesis is that using focused ultrasound modulation and electromagnetic sensing and source imaging, the PIs will be able to noninvasively detect and image dynamic brain activation and function at neural circuits level in the brain. The specific aims of the proposed project are as follows. Aim 1: Test the proposed acousto-electric neuroimaging in a rat model. In this aim, the investigators will use focused ultrasound to modulate regional neural activity and record the induced electrophysiological signals using an electrode-array. The investigators will decode the neural signals from ultrasound modulated electrical measurements and reconstruct the neural activation to test the hypothesis that the proposed imaging will reveal high spatio-temporal pattern of neural activation. Aim 2: Test the proposed acousto-magnetic neuroimaging in a rat model. In this aim, the investigators will use focused ultrasound to modulate regional neural activity and record the induced electrophysiological signals using a spintronic magnetic sensor array. They will decode the neural signals from ultrasound modulated magnetic measurements and reconstruct the neural activation to test the hypothesis that the proposed imaging will reveal neural activation at a high spatio-temporal pattern.
