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Chris Rorden, Directorrorden@gatech.eduwww.cabiatl.com

Randy Engle, Elliott Albers, Chris Rorden, Robin Morris

Center for Advanced Brain Imaging

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Tech drives science

Technical advances allow scientific advances

1610 1993

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A recent revolution...

1543 2009

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How it works

Strong magnetic field (x60,000 earth’s field)– Hydrogen atoms align to magnetic field

Transmit radio signal– Flip protons out of alignment

Nuclei realign– Emit radio signals

No X-ray radiation– Easy to recruit healthy volunteers– Can scan an individual for a long time..., creating – High resolution images

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Versatility

Injury

Anatomy

Angiogram

Activity

Tractography

Fieldmap

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functional MRI

Brain activity influences blood oxygenation.

We can determine regions involved with different functions.

Unlock mysteries of the mind.

Keilholz et al.

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Brain reading

Brain scans can detect American Sign Language.– Even if you don’t move your hands.

Potential: Direct brain interfaces– Locked in patients, hands-free devices.

Chair Chair>Bed Imagine Cold > Hot Starner et al.

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Understanding brain injury

Neglect common consequence of stroke.Individuals ignore items on left side.Imaging reveals superior temporal gyrus crucial.MRI predicts symptoms, prognosis, treatment.

Karnath et al.

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Epilepsy control

Uncontrolled seizures lead to cognitive disability.– Medication only helps 50%.– If medications fail, surgically remove

seizure origin.– Only 50% of surgeries halt seizures.

Imaging suggests successful surgeries include entorhinal cortex.

Bonilha et al.

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Assistive Technologies

‘Aware’ chair– Brain controlled via electric or

optical signals.– Can help disabled.– Also, can be operated remotely,

e.g. bomb squad– Brain imaging refines our

algorithms.

Jackson Moore

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Brain Stimulation

fMRI observes brain function.tDCS/TMS stimulate function.

Example: naming deficits in stroke– 10 individuals with permanent brain injury.– Chronic:>6 months since injury.– fMRI guides brain stimulation.– Brain stimulation applied during computerized

training therapy.– Relative to sham, tDCS improved naming on

trained and unnamed items.– Effects small but statistically reliable.

Baker et al.

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Computer science

Brain imaging very computationally intensive.– 3D images of the brain collected every 2sec.– Some of my analyses have required 7 days to analyze.

CPU 70 GFlops double precision (Core i7)

– We are using graphics cards to accelerate processing.GPU 345 GFlops double precision (Tesla S1070)

Kim & Dasgupta

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The Tech advantage

Research dedicated center – Empowers users: involved in every

stage.– Intrinsically interdisciplinary:

chemistry, cognitive science, computer science, physics, physiology, psychology, medicine.

– Center has hot swappable desks for all disciplines: share ideas and discoveries.

– State of the art equipment.