Open house planned at MRI facility shared by hospital, campus researchers
Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s magnetic resonance imaging facility at 170 University Drive, which is being shared by campus researchers, is hosting an open house on Wednesday, June 4 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Area residents can take a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility, equipped with the Siemens High-Field Open MRI, view demonstrations of imaging technology and learn how faculty from the Psychology and Kinesiology departments will use the MRI equipment to aid their research.
Starting this summer, campus researchers will use the facility one day a week when it is not scheduled for patient care. A $71,880 grant from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research funded some of the hardware and software at the MRI center. Vice Provost Paul Kostecki is also providing $80,000 annually over three years to fund research projects.
Psychology professor Jerrold S. Meyer says the machine allows researchers to see soft tissue, such as muscle or brain tissues, in detail in three dimensions, and see changes as they occur.
“It allows us to see real-time functional changes in the brain such as minute changes in blood flows,” said Meyer.
Professor Kyle Cave and assistant professor Matt Davidson of the Psychology Department are using the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study how changes in blood flow in the brain affects visual attention.
“We’re trying to see what areas in the brain focus or narrow a visual attention, and which areas spread visual attention more broadly,” said Cave, adding that the research may be important in studying people with attention deficits.
For Kinesiology professor Jane Kent-Braun, the fMRI is critical to her research on how muscles change with age. She is trying to determine if muscle mass decreases significantly in older people, and how the muscles of older people respond to exercise and fatigue. The machine allows her to see changes in the muscles and blood flows in a non-invasive fashion.
May 29, 2008.
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