Jang-Yeon Park, a professor of biomedical engineering from South Korea, led his research team to develop an emerging technology that can overcome multiple limitations of the current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology that has been used for nearly 30 years, providing Neuroscientists are working on more powerful research tools for brain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease to understand how biological neural networks work.
If successful, the new technology could one day augment or directly replace widely used clinical imaging tools, including electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), which monitor electrical and magnetic signals in the brain . The study was published on October 13 in the journal Science.
Limitations of current fMRI
Since its introduction in 1990, fMRI has revolutionized brain research by providing a non-invasive, non-invasive way to track patterns of human brain activity, enabling researchers to map regions of the brain. However, the power of fMRI is limited by the timing and location of neuronal activation, as it monitors neuronal activity by measuring blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD). BOLD reflects the hemodynamic changes in the brain, including changes in blood circulation caused by changes in neuronal activity; however, while BOLD provides millimeter-scale spatial resolution to fMRI, the spatial correlates of neuronal activation need to be inferred. The concept of time is still ambiguous, which in turn leads to a limitation of the spatial specificity of BOLD. This is because although hemodynamic fluctuations are very rapid (about 1 second), neurons conduct cognitive and sensory conduction more quickly (about 0.1 second), which makes it impossible for researchers to track neuronal activation, and more than it can also reflect faithfully and immediately. changes in the brain.
New technology to overcome the limitations of MRI machines – DIANA
The Korea University research team proposed high-resolution DIANA technology (direct imaging of neuronal activity), which can directly reflect the intracellular voltage signals of neurons and overcome the indirect physiological limitations of time and space specificity; in addition, the application of DIANA is not easy Contrast agents are required and can be carried on existing MRI equipment to operate. Evaluation of the performance of the DIANA technique by monitoring the mouse brain not only improved the time resolution to 5-millisecond neuronal activity, but also detected small signals while retaining the high spatial resolution of MRI (0.22 mm). ) The benefits.
Pleased to see the excellent performance of DIANA technology, the research team noted that it can be turned into a clinical human system in the future, and it is also expected that more complex signal feedback will be observed in the human brain network, which can test the limits of technology DIANA. Overall, DIANA opens new avenues for neuroimaging, allowing clinical scientists to gain a more accurate and detailed understanding of brain organization and function; its high temporal and spatial resolution will help elucidate the spatiotemporal dynamics of neural networks for causal prediction. relationships between their functions.
Further reading: The world’s first large-scale brain study confirms that brain size changes with age!
Addresses:
1. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade4938
2. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh4340
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