Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Functional MRI has revolutionized cognitive neuroscience over the last decades. It has enabled researchers to measure the brain repsonses of human subject while they are performing cognitive or sensory task. It thus allows for the mapping of a particular function to a given brain structure. fMRI exploits the different magnetic properties of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. When a subject is placed in a high magnetic field (the MR scanner), task-induced changes in brain metabolism alter the ratio of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin locally, causing measurable changes in MR signal intensity. These changes can then be overlayed on a high-resoltuion structural image of that subject, and this link brain function with brain structure. MRI is asolutey safe and thus can be repeated many times in the same individual, for example to trace changes in functional organization across development or disease progression.

We are using fMRI to investigate language processing in normal subjects and epileptic patients. One of the aims is to use fMRI as a tool for lnaguage and memory mapping in presurgical patients, with the potential of supplementing and in some cases replacing the invasive WADA test. We are also looking at cortical reorganization of motor and somatosensory function in epilepsy and brain lesion patients.

The fMRI scanning is done on the 1.5T Siemens Allegra scanner in the Center for Brain Imaging at NYU, which compromises a vibrant community of fMRI researchers.

fMRI results to word reading in a single subject:

fMRI group results to word reading in 10 subjects:

Relevant pulications: