UCLA Brain Imaging Research

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

By Tim McIntire

Brain Imaging laboratories at UCLA are working towards creating a better understanding of the relationship between structure and function within the human brain through the use of sophisticated imaging tools such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and an advanced computational pipeline that has enabled brain activity maps to be created in just seconds. This process is implemented with a set of Mac-based command-line utilities and cross platform open source software that performs statistical analyses of the 4-dimensional MRI datasets (i.e. a time-series of 3-dimensional images) in order to create the functional MRI brain maps used in research and clinical applications. Early successes include the introduction of new techniques for diagnosing and treating conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and advanced brain tumors.

“When you put a computer into the line of medical care, you are making a very strong statement about that system – you are saying that it has a reliability factor that is appropriate for this type of work.”

To handle fMRI’s massive amount of data (which is commonly generated at 64 MB per second) the UCLA Center for Cognitive Neuroscience uses an Apple Xserve cluster and Apple Xserve RAID capable of high-performance image processing and efficient data ingestion and archival. Individual Macs including Power Macs, PowerBooks and MacBook Pros are used as visualization workstations to analyze and disseminate results.

Before the initial release of Mac OS X, the solutions used by brain-imaging researchers included a variety of specialized UNIX workstations. The advantages of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, including a UNIX-based foundation, robust developer tools, and cross-platform compatibility features, inspired Mark Cohen, PhD, a faculty member and a pioneer in fMRI research, who leads the development of the center’s open source software solutions, to make a complete switch to Macs.

Mac OS X Stability and Usability

The development environment in Mac OS X has allowed Cohen’s group to put advanced tools into the hands of the many of his fellow Neuroimaging researchers, as well as those of numerous off-site researchers that download from their shared software site. The implementation of Apple solutions for the brain imaging community has created a multi-purpose environment suitable for everything from desktop productivity to high performance cluster computing, leading directly to clinical success.

Cohen says, “When you put a computer into the line of medical care, you are making a very strong statement about that system – you are saying that it has a reliability factor that is appropriate for this type of work. One of our goals is to study the medical use of computers more fully. To go there, we can’t tolerate downtime, we can’t tolerate computational problems, and we can’t tolerate incompatibilities across devices.”

Clinical Success with fMRI

Cohen’s colleague at the David Geffen School of Medicine, Dr. Susan Bookheimer, is using fMRI, along with Cohen’s software, to open new vistas in pre-surgical planning. By utilizing novel methods in neuropsychology and neurosurgery, Dr. Bookheimer is able to work with surgeons to save patients with previously inoperable brain tumors while preserving quality of life. Bookheimer uses Cohen’s Mac OS X based image processing utilities, including CC_Grinder, ImageConverter and overlayMac, along with her MacBook Pro to map the brain so precisely that surgeons are able to focus on saving particular life skills critical to individual patients.

Dr. Bookheimer explains, “More patients are going into surgery than ever before, because it is possible to understand where essential skills like language are organized in the brain and how to navigate into these areas without hurting function. When you have an fMRI scan that tells you it’s very likely you can take out a patient’s whole tumor without hurting their language, then suddenly a surgeon is emboldened to give it a try.”

Planning for a Better Quality of Life

Dr. Bookheimer described her recent work for a patient who is a gifted young studio musician. He had a large brain tumor in the frontal lobe of his left-brain hemisphere, which put him at serious risk for language impairment after brain surgery; this loss of function would likely end his musical career playing the French horn. The patient underwent an fMRI scan while he was asked to complete language and music tests including reading sheet music while fingering a faux French horn. Bookheimer used her MacBook Pro to complete the testing process and subsequently complete a statistical analysis of each individual language task to increase the chances for a successful surgical outcome while decreasing the chances of complications.

1 2 Next Page >