National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
Advanced ICT Research Institute

CREST-Brain Imaging Team

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Introduction of CREST-Brain Imaging Team

Our project, "the development of the noninvasive quantitative brain functional imaging technique", aims to develop the new noninvasive quantitative imaging techniques of brain function through quantification of brain activity.

To achieve this goal, we are conducting experiments with fMRI, NIRS, EEG and other physiological measurements on human subjects, and are focusing on the following issues:

  • Identifying human physiological state by using multimodal fMRI
  • Quantifying effect of cardiovascular and sympathetic nervous activity on NIRS and fMRI signals

We have developed the comprehensive system which records fMRI, EEG and other physiological measures simultaneously. Our system allows us to investigate relationship between phasic events and changes of fMRI signal. Actually, we revealed brain activity that accompany rapied eye movements during REM sleep by using our system (Miyauchi et al., 2009).

Our team's EEG and fMRI simultaneous EEG-fMRI recording system

Brain Activation accompanying REMs during REM sleep

Upper leftEEG and fMRI in our research center
Upper rightSchematic diagram of our simultaneous EEG/fMRI recording system
(Click the image to display large size figure)
Lower leftRapid eye movements during REM sleep in MR magnet
(Click the Play button to play the movie)
Lower rightBrain activation accompanying rapid eye movements
(Click the image to display large size figure)

Using simultaneous recording of fMRI and physiological measures, we can remove physiological noise contaminating fMRI signals. This correction improves the SNR of fMRI signals. We can also investigate effects of cardiovascular and sympathetic nervous activity on fMRI signals with simultaneous recording. Up to now, these influence has not been considered in previous imaging studies.

Recently, by using spontaneous BOLD analysis (s-BOLD analysis), we revealed REM and NREM sleep-specific brain networks. This results indicate that we can identify a state-specific brain network without any tasks.

We believe that combining simultaneous EEG/fMRI recording and s-BOLD analysis can provide breakthrough in neuroscience.