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Functional
brain imaging is the non-invasive measurement of brain activity associated
with mental function. This techinque relies on an interdisciplinary
approach involving close collaborations among physicists, chemists,
and engineers to design methods for image acquisition; behavioral
scientists and neuroscientists to design experiments that engage brain
regions specific to mental functions of interest; and mathematicians
and statisticians to design new methods of processing and analyzing
the large and complex datasets that these methods generate.
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The
CSBMB pulls together leading experts in each of these areas, drawing
upon existing state-of-the-art methods of brain imaging, and developing
new ones, to understand the neural bases of higher mental function.
Neural bases of Higher Mental Function.
CSBMB research focuses specifically on the brain
mechanisms by which memory, thought and action are integrated and
controlled by higher level goals, and modulated by states of arousal,
motivation, and emotion. These mechanisms of integration, control
and modulation are central to higher mental processes, such as our
ability to direct attention, hold information in short term memory
or retrieve it from long term memory, reason through a problem, make
complex decisions, and plan a course of future action.
Center investigators examining such questions
are:
B. J. Casey: attention and inhibition
Jonathan
Cohen: cognitive control
Phil
Johnson-Laird: reasoning
Daniel
Kahneman: affect and cognition
Sabine Kastner: attention and perception
Ken
Norman: episodic memory
Anne
Treisman: attention and intention
Development of Advanced Methods for Functional
Brain Imaging
The brain processes relevant to mental function
are believed to be organized on a scale of approximately one tenth
of a millimeter (0.1 mm), and to occur on the order of approximately
one tenth of a second (100 milliseconds). No currently available method
of brain imaging can provide information at this level of detail.
The two techniques in primary use provide complementary capabilities:
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides detailed spatial
information about brain activity (over areas as small as 1 mm), but
more limited time course information. Detailed temporal information
(on the order of 1 millesecond) can be obtained by scalp recordings
of electrical activity synchronized to stimulus events and/or behavioral
responses (known as Event Related Potentials, or ERPs). However, this
method provides relatively limited spatial information. CSBMB investigators
are exploring the combined use of these methods, improvements in each,
and entirely new methods designed to overcome these limitations, and
provide spatially and dynamically detailed images of brain function
on a scale that is directly relevant to mental function.
Investigators developing new methods of
image acquisition and analysis are:
Benjamin
Bly: analysis
Rene
Carmona: analysis
Jonathan
Cohen: analysis
Ingrid
Daubechies: analysis
David
Dobkin: analysis
Steve
Hanson: analysis
William
Happer: acquisition
Tie-Qiang
Li: acquisition
Partha
Mitra: analysis
Stuart
Schwartz: analysis
Warren
Warren: acquisition
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