[Seminar] High-resolution Rodent fMRI at Ultrahigh Fields by Professor Seong-Gi Kim

Abstract:

High-resolution fMRI is increasing used for mapping functional networks in whole brains at a fine scale. In human fMRI studies, one millimeter isotropic resolution has been obtained at 7 T with states-of-the-art methodologies. In animal studies, even higher spatial resolution is needed for matching brain resolution due to the different brain size (e.g., 20 cm in humans vs. ~2 cm in rats), which requires the improvement of fMRI sensitivity, and understands fundamental spatial limits. My lab has been working on underlying biophysics, sensitivity, specificity, and limits of fMRI with animal models. In my talk, high-resolution fMRI of anesthetized rodents at ultrahigh fields of 9.4 T and 15.2 T will be discussed.

Bio:

Seong-Gi Kim, Ph.D., is the Director of Neuroscience Imaging Research Center in the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), and Professor of Biomedical Engineering in Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU).  He did his graduate works on in vivo NMR spectroscopy (1984-88) at Washington University, and postdoc training on structural biology at the University of Washington.  In 1991, he moved to the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research in the University of Minnesota and involved into the first human fMRI studies in 1992.  After advancing his rank to full Professor, he moved to the University of Pittsburgh at 2002.  He was appointed as the inaugural Paul C. Lauterbur Chair in Imaging Research at 2009, which was created for honoring a Nobel laureate and MRI inventor. Recently he returned to Korea for setting up a new imaging center.  His major research focus is to develop magnetic resonance imaging techniques for measuring brain physiology and function, to determine relationships between neural activity and hemodynamic responses, and to apply imaging tools for answering neuroscience questions.