NEWS
ImageTech Lab research and activity updates.
Scientific Director named Tier-2 Canada Research ChairAlex Wiesman, PhD, 大象传媒, British Columbia, Canada ImageTech Lab鈥檚 Scientific Director Dr. Alex Wiesman was recently named the Canada Research Chair (II) in Neurophysiology of Aging and Neurodegeneration. The Canada Research Chair Program supports 鈥渟ome of the world鈥檚 most accomplished and promising minds鈥� with over $300M in annual funding. Dr. Wiesman鈥檚 CRC research program will focus on healthy and pathological trajectories of brain ageing, measured with multimodal MEG and MRI at ImageTech Lab. Find out more about his research program .
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Development of eye and hand coordination skillsHee Yeon Im, PhD, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada In a collaboration between University of British Columbia and BC Children鈥檚 Hospital, Drs. Hee Yeon Im and Deborah Giaschi are investigating how hand-eye coordination skills develop and grow in children's brains. Using MEG, this work examines time courses of neural responses in the brain's visual, attention, and motor systems in 40 school-aged children with healthy vision and 40 more with a visual disorder called amblyopia. Click to learn more about this research project and others by Dr. Im.
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Evaluation of Cognitive Function Effect from Carotid Artery Stenting: a Functional MRI StudyWilliam Siu, MD, Royal Columbian Hospital, British Columbia, Canada Cognitive function is a vital health outcome that influences patient well-being, functional status, and quality of life. Carotid artery stenoses account for 20%鈥�30% of ischemic strokes, often through the production of emboli that block downstream arteries in the brain. Interventions to treat carotid artery stenoses such as placing an intra-arterial stent (a hollow tube to hold the artery open) have the goal of preventing future strokes. Less clear is the extent to which reduced blood flow due to carotid artery stenosis may contribute to cognitive decline, and correspondingly knowledge about the effects of stenting on cognition remains limited. In a small cohort of patients with severe (>70% stenosis), we are applying quantitative flow MRI to measure delivery of blood to the brain, arterial spin labelling to track the impact of flow changes on brain perfusion, and neurocognitive testing, all performed before and at two time points after carotid artery stenting. This prospective study is seeking to better understand the role of carotid stenting in enhancing blood flow to the brain, and to relate blood flow levels with neurocognitive assessment results. A first manuscript derived from this study examines the impact of stenting on blood flow to the brain and how the blood flow relates to cognitive function, and has been published in Medicina and is available via open access , .
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Engaging brain research participants with ingenuity and a 3D printerAlex Wiesman, PhD, 大象传媒, British Columbia, Canada A new project at ImageTech Lab is letting research participants touch their own brain - or, a model of it, at least. Led by Ako Sotiroff and Parham Fathi Naz, undergraduate students in 大象传媒's Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology (BPK), the project has developed a pipeline for 3D printing a small model of a person's brain from MRI data collected at ImageTech. By giving them a brain model that they can take home with them, this project aims to make research participants feel more engaged with the studies that they're taking part in.
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Autism and schizotypy as windows into religious neurocognitionBernard Crespi, PhD, 大象传媒, British Columbia, Canada How the brain processes information related to religious thought is not well understood. This is particularly true in individuals on the autism spectrum and those living with schizotypy, who tend to have decreased and increased belief in the supernatural, respectively. With support from the Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Cognition Project, this study led by Drs. Doesburg and Crespi from 大象传媒 aims to help fill this gap using a comprehensive series of psychological and neuroimaging measures of religious neurocognition in 100 healthy individuals with autistic and positive schizotypal cognitive traits. |
A multimodal MRI study targeting the neuroinflammatory response in the brain of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)
Dr. Luis Nacul, BC's Women's Hospital & Health Centre
The purpose of the study is to reveal brain metabolic, brain tissue temperature, and functional changes underlying neuroinflammation in the clinical expression of ME/CFS by acquiring MRI data on functional, metabolic, and structural brain changes in ME/CFS patients. The acquired MRI data will be linked with that of clinical assessment to inform clinical diagnosis and treatment. This pilot study will enable the development of a larger scale study to better understand the underlying mechanism of ME progression; thus, in the future for treatment development as well.
Modified Deep Inspiratory Breath Hold (mDIBH) technique for heart sparing in left breast radiography
Dr. Fred Cao, BC Cancer
DIBH technique is commonly used for left breast cancer radiotherapy to spare the heart from the treatment field. Some patients are unable to hold their breath for the required CT scan time. The Modified Deep Inspiratory Breath Hold with shallow breathing (mDIBH) technique will not require patients to hold their breath, but hold the chest wall after the chest wall has fully expanded from deep inspiration while allowing shallow respiration at the same time. The amount of heart sparing is dependent on the distance between the chest wall and the heart. Therefore mDIBH can spare the same amount of heart as DIBH in radiotherapy.
Functional Neuroimaging for Biomarker Discovery in Chronic Pain
Dr. Aaron MacInnes, University of British Columbia
While acute pain is reasonably well managed, the cause of chronic pain symptoms over time remain a scientific and clinical challenge. The proposed study will use imaging techniques to look at the brain wave patterns of patients who have chronic pain. The brain patterns of these patients will be compared to healthy controls. We will be looking for a specific pattern known as thalamocortical dysrhythmia (TCD). TCD has been demonstrated in other research studies involving chronic pain patients. If we can detect these patterns, then we might be able to use them as markers in patients who have chronic pain.
Structural and functional brain connectivity in typical and atypical development
Dr. Sam Doesburg, 大象传媒
This study will investigate how structural and functional brain connectivity develops during childhood, how the maturation of such structure-function relations contributes to cognitive development, and how altered development of brain networks contributes to cognitive difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To investigate these questions, we intend to gather psychometric and neuroimaging data from healthy children and from children with ASD. We will then construct, on a per-participant basis, a functional connectivity map that describes the networks by which each participant鈥檚 brain processes and responds to information. Differences in these functional connectivity maps will then be systematically compared with psychometric data in order to determine how these networks emerge in normally developing children, and how their development is affected by ASD.