MRI is the only technology that can image the connectivity of the human brain in vivo and non-invasively. However, neither BOLD fMRI nor diffusion-based fiber tracking has been able to break the barrier of 1-mm voxel spatial resolution. Yet, 1-mm voxel contains roughly 50,000 neuronal cells and the human cortex is less than 5 mm thick. The disparity between the spatial scales has thus created a large gap between MRI studies of the whole brain and optical imaging and cell recordings of groups of neurons. The overarching objective of this proposal is to bring noninvasive human brain imaging into the microscale resolution and begin to bridge studies of neuronal circuitry and network organization in the human brain. Our breakthrough technology, termed MR Corticography (MRCoG), will achieve dramatic gains in spatial and temporal resolutions by focusing exclusively to the cortex. Higher-sensitivity coil sensors will be designed that tailor to the superficial volume of the brain MRCoG will also be used to map intracortical axonal connectivity, overcoming a fundamental resolution limit inherent to all in vivo human neuronal fiber tractography to date by replacing diffusion imaging with a novel susceptibility contrast mapping of axon fibers. Innovative imaging pulse sequences will be designed to complement the high-sensitivity coil arrays to achieve higher spatial resolution in the neocortex. The improved capabilities of these sensors will be further exploited using new, vastly more efficient spatial multiplexed and temporal multiplexed image acquisition to further accelerate scanning by taking advantage of spatiotemporal sparsity. In summary, the proposed research will create a novel technology for imaging the human brain's neocortex with barrier-breaking resolution and contrast. MRCoG will facilitate the integration between in vivo non-invasive human-brain MRI and cellular and genetic imaging techniques. If successful, it will fundamentally transform our ability to study the human brain. Because it is based on MRI, MRCoG can be readily translated to patient care, providing potential high impact in the care of mental health, traumatic brain injuries, epilepsy among many other debilitating brain diseases and disorders.

Public Health Relevance

If successful, the new technology developed in this project will dramatically improve our ability to visualize the structures and functions of human brain cortex. As a new research tool, it can not only transform the understanding of networks within our brain, but also provide potential high impact in the care of mental health, traumatic brain injuries, epilepsy among many other debilitating brain diseases and disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Resource-Related Research Projects (R24)
Project #
1R24MH106096-01
Application #
8828462
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMH1-ERB-C (09))
Program Officer
Farber, Gregory K
Project Start
2014-09-26
Project End
2017-06-30
Budget Start
2014-09-26
Budget End
2015-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$496,313
Indirect Cost
$86,122
Name
University of California Berkeley
Department
Neurosciences
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
124726725
City
Berkeley
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94704
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Polak, Daniel; Setsompop, Kawin; Cauley, Stephen F et al. (2018) Wave-CAIPI for highly accelerated MP-RAGE imaging. Magn Reson Med 79:401-406
Polimeni, Jonathan R; Wald, Lawrence L (2018) Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology-bridging the gap between noninvasive human imaging and optical microscopy. Curr Opin Neurobiol 50:250-260
Wang, Fuyixue; Bilgic, Berkin; Dong, Zijing et al. (2018) Motion-robust sub-millimeter isotropic diffusion imaging through motion corrected generalized slice dithered enhanced resolution (MC-gSlider) acquisition. Magn Reson Med 80:1891-1906
Zhao, Bo; Setsompop, Kawin; Adalsteinsson, Elfar et al. (2018) Improved magnetic resonance fingerprinting reconstruction with low-rank and subspace modeling. Magn Reson Med 79:933-942
Feinberg, David A; Vu, An T; Beckett, Alexander (2018) Pushing the limits of ultra-high resolution human brain imaging with SMS-EPI demonstrated for columnar level fMRI. Neuroimage 164:155-163
Setsompop, Kawin; Fan, Qiuyun; Stockmann, Jason et al. (2018) High-resolution in vivo diffusion imaging of the human brain with generalized slice dithered enhanced resolution: Simultaneous multislice (gSlider-SMS). Magn Reson Med 79:141-151
Vu, An T; Beckett, Alex; Setsompop, Kawin et al. (2018) Evaluation of SLIce Dithered Enhanced Resolution Simultaneous MultiSlice (SLIDER-SMS) for human fMRI. Neuroimage 164:164-171
Kim, Tae Hyung; Bilgic, Berkin; Polak, Daniel et al. (2018) Wave-LORAKS: Combining wave encoding with structured low-rank matrix modeling for more highly accelerated 3D imaging. Magn Reson Med :
Lin, Huimin; Wei, Hongjiang; He, Naying et al. (2018) Quantitative susceptibility mapping in combination with water-fat separation for simultaneous liver iron and fat fraction quantification. Eur Radiol 28:3494-3504

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