Functional MRI Core Facility

National Institute Of Mental Health

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Space Utilization: The Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Facility (FMRIF) currently occupies approximately 5000 sq ft of space in Building 10, divided between the B1 level scanner bays, control rooms and electronics/machine rooms for 3TA/3TB, Siemens 7T-A, and the new Siemens 7T-B, (about 1800 sq ft, 1100 sq ft and 1300 sq ft respectively) and office space within the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) center. On the first floor are the Functional MRI Facility and the Section on Functional Imaging Methods suites (approximately 800 sq ft total) for office space and shared conference space for all staff employed full-time by the facility. Staff: The FMRIF staff consists of: the facility director, five staff scientists to keep the scanners running, one staff scientist for the center for multimodal neuroimaging, six MRI technologists, and an information technology specialist. This year we had some turnover in staff. Laurentius Huber joined our group - adding world class expertise in high-field and high-resolution fMRI methods to manage and help optimally utilize our world class physical resource of two 7T scanners. Roark Maccado, our information technology specialist, has left and was recently replaced by Hoan Le. In October, Tyler Morgan will be filling Sean Marrett's vacated position. Investigators: The FMRIF supports the research of about 30 Principal Investigators translating to over 300 researchers overall. Over 70 research protocols are active and making use of FMRIF scanners. Each scanner has scheduled operating hours of 105 hours per week. Core Projects of the Staff Scientists: Vinai Roopchansingh Dr. Roopchansingh has brought the informatics platform, XNAT, into use. This is an ongoing challenge as the vendor is struggling to address the large amount of data (over 100 TB, and growing). He formally took over management of FMRIFs IT infrastructure, and is starting the process of revamping, modernizing, and streamlining all things related to that, including staff transitions. He is taking over Sean Marrett's duties involving oversight of FMRIFs budget and spending. In the past year, he worked with Joyce Chung on the NIMHs Healthy Volunteer protocol. He also worked with Reza Momenan and his staff to use FMRI neurofeedback for managing craving. Lastly, he worked with Holly Lisanby's group to set up FMRI neurofeedback for an in-scanner FMRI+TMS experiment. Linqing Li Dr. Linqing Li has continued to provide service and assistance to the noninvasive neuromodulation unit headed by Holly Lisanby. Specifically, he has helped test the TMS-fMRI coil test and to prepare the necessary documentation for approval by the NMR Center Safety Committee. It has recently been approved. In this area, he has collaborated with Dr Lysianne Beynel from Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch. Dr. Li has also provided service for software and equipment upgrading and facility maintenance. He has established standard procedures for MR measurements and has investigated potential problems for protocol applications. Dr. Li continues to work on a novel scientific project. For three years, he has been developing an approach to quantify and spatially resolve oxygen metabolism in the brain using measured BOLD and CBF changes alone, without a calibration scan. This technique involves assumptions of the relationship between changes in CBF and blood volume. He is currently writing this work up for publication. Laurentius (Renzo) Huber Dr. Huber's role in the core is to develop, validate, and apply acquisition and analysis tools of high-resolution MRI and fMRI. He aims to facilitate and support neuroscience-focused and neurology-focused applications of layer-specific fMRI across institutes. Layer-specific neural activity information has the potential to infer directional information flow within and between brain areas. Dr. Huber arrived at the time when a second 7T scanner (7TB) was ready to use. Dr. Huber helped to set up multiple scan protocols for high-resolution (f)MRI, increasing its usage considerably Dr. Huber manages the multi-institute NIH layer-fMRI working group which deliberates on developments in layer-fMRI and advanced 7T imaging. They offer insights into best practices for acquiring and analyzing high-resolution fMRI data at 7T. The group has delivered high-resolution Vascular Space Occupancy (VASO) scan protocols along with tutorials. Dr. Huber has instituted parallel transmit (pTx) scanning at 7TB, successfully ensuring that researchers can obtain consistent signal quality across the entire brain using universal pulses. In a collaboration with Dr. Silvina Horowitz in NINDS, Dr. Huber developed layer-fMRI protocols adaptable for application in patients with focal hand dystonia. The resulted in the publication: Huber, L. et al, 2023, titled "Laminar VASO fMRI in focal hand dystonia patients." Dr. Huber collaborated with Dr. Martin Kronbichler in Austria, facilitating layer-specific MRI sequences developed at FMRIF for imaging at 3T. This resulted in a publication: Huber, L.et al., 2023, titled "Evaluating the capabilities and challenges of layer-fMRI VASO at 3T" in Aperture Neuro. Dr. Huber updated fMRI sequences and protocols for FMRIF 7T scanners to accommodate the acquisition reference scans necessary for a new denoising technique known as NORDIC. He also provided mentorship to student Lasse Knusden, steering the development of an analysis pipeline for the users. The main focus of Dr. Huber's independent research has been his solution to a common imaging artifact in high-resolution fMRI, referred to as "Fuzzy ripples." His method mitigated this artifact and currently enables higher resolution imaging than any other functional sequence. This work has been distributed across 40 sites presented at both the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) conferences. A notable publication emerged: Huber, L. et al, 2023, titled "Fuzzy ripple artifacts in layer-fMRI EPI: Towards better layer-fMRI data with Dual-polarity readouts" presented at OHBM. With the recent software updates of the classic 7T (7TA) and the arrival of the new 7T (7TB) in FMRIF, the intramural program has now access to modern sequences that were not previously accessible. Dr. Huber augmented the current sequences to include all of the advancements in the field from the last decades. New sequences include: -> EPI with Dual Polarity GRAPPA for ghost free imaging of 7T fMRI. -> MP2RAGE with the ability to quantify T1 maps (previously only available at T1w scans). -> Structural scanning (including turbo flash and MP2RAGE) with compressed sensing reconstruction for faster structural imaging with reduced imaging artifacts. -> MAFI for efficient B1+ mapping. -> Pulseq for open-source sequence programming. -> Pasteur sequence package for pTX for improved homogeneity in standard clinical protocols. John (Andy) Derbyshire Dr. Derbyshire continues to be the FMRIF lead in the FMRIF/NIBIB insertable head gradient project. He provided support maintaining the Siemens Pulse Sequence development environment within the MR Center, including support for all five FMRIF MRI systems plus the NMRF 7T and NIAAA 3T scanners as well as assistance to users with pulse-sequence programming. Dr. Derbyshire is involved with NMR Center safety training and is a member of the safety committee and currently supervises the MRI technologists.