Research Projects

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our vision is to develop the first noninvasive, real-time and portable electrical brain mapping system based on disruptive acoustoelectric (AE) technology. Our goal is to overcome limitations with functional brain imaging and electroencephalography (EEG), which suffers from poor resolution and inaccuracies due to the blurring of electrical signals as they pass through the brain and skull. Acoustoelectric Brain Imaging (ABI) implements pulsed ultrasound (US) to transiently modulate local tissue resistivity.

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is to administer and further develop a successfully established two-week summer training course titled "Mining and Modeling of Neuroscience Data" which is held at UC Berkeley. The course teaches methods for analyzing neurophysiology data, that is, measurements of the neural activity over time, co-registered with behavior or stimuli.

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The establishment of new and precise strategies for mapping brain activity in human subjects is one of the highest priorities of the BRAIN Initiative.

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A technique will be developed to determine where in the brain the signal in an electroencephalogram (EEG) is originating from in order to generate a "voxel-specific EEG", much like the signal coming from an implanted electrode. We propose to call this VIrtual Brain Electrode (VIBE) imaging. The method is based on the principle that red blood cells (RBCs), due to their specific shape and their insulating cell surface, affect the conductivity of the surrounding volume in dependence of their orientation.

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): All presently available neural stimulation methods are either invasive or can only be moderately localized, and a neurostimulation method that could overcome these limitations would be invaluable for brain circuit investigation. Neural stimulation with magnetic resonance guided high intensity focused ultrasound (MRgHIFU) is a promising technology that can noninvasively excite or inhibit neural activity in well-defined discrete volumes of the brain, subsequently enabling investigation of brain circuits with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Presently there is no imaging technology capable of detecting neuronal activity in the entire human brain with millisecond and millimeter resolution. We propose to evaluate the possibility of developing a novel noninvasive method, sonoelectric tomography (SET), capable of directly imaging electrophysiological activity in the entire human brain with such resolution. In this method, conventional scalp electroencephalography (EEG) is used to measure the electrical activity.

PROJECT SUMMARY State-of-the art neural recording technologies for in vivo applications can record simultaneously from a few hundred microelectrode recording sites. These recording sites are passive electrodes wired to read-out circuitry outside the brain. The number of wires entering the brain is equal to number of recording sites.

Project Summary/ Abstract Multi-photon, depth-sectioning microscopes are of paramount importance in capturing neural activity with cellular resolution. Despite their impressive image quality and robustness to scattering, diffraction limited, scanning multi- photon microscopes face a fundamental trade-off between the field of view (FOV) and imaging speed, which arises from the need to sequentially visit every voxel of the three-dimensional space.

Project Summary: Dynamic mapping of complex brain circuits by monitoring and modulating brain activity at a large scale will enhance our understanding of brain functions, such as sensation, thought, emotion, and action. This knowledge will ultimately help to better treat and prevent neurological disorders. Real-time interfacing with the brain also has the potential to enhance our perceptual, motor, and cognitive capabilities, as well as to restore sensory and motor functions lost through injury or disease.

ABSTRACT: The brain simultaneously processes tremendous amount of information using billions of neurons. Technologies for large scale recording and modulation of neurons in the brain of behaving animals sought by this RFA should provide researchers with tools to correlate neural circuits with behavior. To identify and control the circuits responsible for a specific state of behavior, technologies allowing activity-dependent labeling of neurons during a restricted time-window are required. Current methods do not allow direct labeling of activated neurons at a large scale with fast temporal r