FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING BIOMARKER OF NEURAL ABNORMALITY

摘要

Systems and methods for application of fMRI as a biomarker of neural abnormalities are presented. A subject's activations of brain regions that occur while performing cognitive tasks in an fMRI scanning apparatus are measured. The resulting measurements are compared to the activations of brain regions that occur during each cognitive task for a control group. The comparison to the performance and brain activations of normal subjects determine the presence of cortical compensatory mechanisms that indicate neural abnormalities in the subject.

主权项

1. A method for identifying a neural abnormality in a subject, comprising:
acquiring magnetic resonance image (MRI) data of a subject using an MRI apparatus; during acquisition of the MRI data,
presenting a cognitive task to the subject, andreceiving a response from the subject; analyzing the MRI data to determine a measure of activation in one or more areas of a brain of the subject in response to the cognitive task; comparing the measure of activation in one or more areas of the brain of the subject to a measure of activation in a corresponding one or more areas of brains of a control population; determining the presence of one or more cortical compensatory mechanisms in the subject based on said comparison; and identifying a neural abnormality in the subject in accordance with said determined presence of the one or more cortical compensatory mechanisms.