Imaging Core

University Of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The purpose of this core is to provide infrastructure resources for projects in the grant utilizing Magnetic[unreadable] Resonance Imaging, and to develop resources that may be shared for the current projects as well as future[unreadable] projects relevant to developmental disorders in fronto-striatal circuits. There will be four primary components[unreadable] of the Imaging Core: a technical sub-core, focused on testing and ensuring high image quality and[unreadable] integrating new technological developments developments including novel pulse sequences, parallel imaging[unreadable] technology, a head gradient set, rapid reconstruction algorithms, and simultaneous EEG/fMRI,as well as[unreadable] supporting structural MRi and DTI acqiuisition. A design and analysis sub-core will provide expertise for[unreadable] designing and implementing fMRi experiments, and analysis of fMRI, structural MRI and DTI data, and[unreadable] analysis. A behavioral training/desensitization unit will use a simulated MRi environment with biofeedback to[unreadable] desensitization pediatric subjects to the environment and track head motion to maximize the likelihood of[unreadable] successfully scanning difficult populations. Finally, an analysis and databasing unit will conduct fMRI[unreadable] analyses for CIDAR projects and manage and maintain a structural MRI database. Structural and DTI data[unreadable] acquired in the Imaging core will feed into all of the human projects (1,3,and 4) to test specific hypothesis of[unreadable] structural and functional connectivity in front-striatal circuits. The infrastructure resources provided by the[unreadable] Imaging Core is integral to projects 3 and 4 and benefits subjects entering Project 1; these resources will be[unreadable] available for future pediatric imaging studies that may access the UCLA CIDAR in future years. An imaging[unreadable] core dedicated to promoting research into the neurobiology of ADHD and Tourette's will enable us to tackle[unreadable] some of the more difficult problems in pediatric imaging, namely, the technical difficulties in image acquisition[unreadable] in orbito-frontal retgions; analysis of developing brains that may contain structural differences or[unreadable] abnormalities; variability in brain development in children; and practical difficulties in scanning children with[unreadable] disorders of cognitive control. Having core resources at every stage of the imaging study, from design and[unreadable] image acquisition through data analysis, will enable investigators who are not imaging experts to apply these[unreadable] methods to other developmental disorders, and will provide resources to evaluate the effects of new[unreadable] treatments, both behavioral and pharmacological, on brain function in developmental disorders.[unreadable]