Functional neuroimaging: methods and clinical applications

Our research focuses on brain physiology and the use of functional imaging methods including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and optical imaging to study brain function in both healthy subjects and in patients with a variety of clinical disorders including stroke, epilepsy, neurodegenerative disease, traumatic brain injury, and migraine. We are most widely known for seminal work in the development and validation of arterial spin labeled (ASL) perfusion MRI, a noninvasive quantitative perfusion method that has been translated to clinical practice. ASL MRI provides noninvasive quantification of cerebral blood flow (CBF), which is tightly coupled to regional neural activity, and hence provides a means of quantifying regional brain function. Because ASL MRI can quantify brain function in absolute units, it is suitable for measuring regional brain function at very low temporal frequencies, including trait effects, brain development, and drug effects. While most of our ASL MRI work has focused on the brain, some lines of inquiry also extend to other organs. Our main recent focus is on the development of MRI biomarkers for aging and neurodegenerative disease research in conjunction with the Penn Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. We are also active in other areas of neuroimaging research, such as the development of MRI based brain metabolic mapping based on chemical exchange saturation transfer methods and downfield spectroscopy with the Center for Advanced Metabolic Imaging in Precision Medicine and the development and applications of brain oximetry and oxygen consumption mapping in collaboration with the Laboratory for Structural, Physiologic and Functional Imaging.

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