• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.110-117
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• 2008

Objectives : Posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD) has been primarily associated with emotional problems. Recently, however, the impact of PTSD on cognitive processes has interested a growing number of researchers. The current study is aimed at investigating the cognitive aspects of PTSD at both behavioral and neurological levels. Methods : We recruited individuals with PTSD who survived the Daegu subway explosion in 2003 as well as non-PTSD individuals as a control group. To evaluate the inhibitory processes and the neural mechanisms, we had these individuals perform the negative priming task simultaneously with functional MRI scanning. Results : Behaviorally, the negative priming effect was intact in the control group but was not evident in the PTSD group. In the imaging results, only the PTSD group showed the negative priming effect (i.e., increased activation of the negative priming condition as opposed to the neutral condition) in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and inferior temporal gyrus. The PTSD group also showed increased activity for the positive priming condition as opposed to the neutral condition in the claustrum. These results confirm and extend the previous findings that the integrity of the ACC is compromised in the trauma survivors due to disrupted white matter tract. Conclusions : The current results suggest that deteriorated performance of the PTSD group may be due to the functional problem as well as the structural abnormalities.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.352-355
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not acupuncture of GB34 produces a significant response of the modulation of somatomotor areas by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. The acupoint, GB34, located in the back of the knee, is known to be effective in recovering motor function after stroke. Using 3T MRI scanner, functional MR imaging of the whole brain was performed in 12 normal healthy subjects during two stimulation paradigms; acupuncture manipulation on GB 34 and sham points. This study investigates the activation of the mortor cortex elicited by a soft and an intensified stimulation of GB 34. Three different paradigms were carried out to detect any possible modulation of the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) response in the somatomortor area to motor stimulation through acupuncture. Group analysis from seven individuals showed that bilateral sensorimotor areas (BA 3,4,6 and 7) showed stimulation related BOLD signal contrast of approximately 6% whereas very few areas were activated when sham stimulation is given. The present study shows that acupuncture fMRI study can be safely conducted in 3T MRI environment, and acupuncture stimulation in GB34 modulates the cortical activities of the somatomotor area in human. The present findings may shed light on the CNS mechanism of motor function by acupuncture and form a basis for future investigations of motor modulation circuits in the stroke patients.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.223-230
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• 2005

This paper presents a new approach to investigate spatial correlation between independent components of brain alpha activity in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). To avoid potential problems of simultaneous fMRI and EEG acquisitions in imaging pure alpha activity, data from each modality were acquired separately under a 'three conditions' setup where one of the conditions involved closing eyes and relaxing, thus making it conducive to generation of alpha activity. The other two conditions -- eyes open in a lighted room or engaged in a mental arithmetic task, were designed to attenuate alpha activity. Using a Mixture Density Independent Component Analysis (MD-ICA) that incorporates flexible non-linearity functions into the conventional ICA framework, we could identify the spatiotemporal components of fMRI activations and EEG activities associated with the alpha rhythm. Then, the sources of the individual EEG alpha activity component were localized by a Maximum Entropy (ME) method that is specially designed to find the most probable dipole distribution minimizing the localization error in sense of LMSE. The resulting active dipoles were spatially transformed to 3D MRls of the subject and compared to fMRI alpha activity maps. A good spatial correlation was found in the spatial distribution of alpha sources derived independently from fMRI and EEG, suggesting the proposed method can localize the cortical areas responsible for generating alpha activity successfully in either fMRI or EEG. Finally a functional connectivity analysis was applied to show that alpha activity sources of both modalities were also functionally connected to each other, implying that they are involved in performing a common function: 'the generation of alpha rhythms'.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.36-49
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• 2021

Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, especially among adolescents and young adults. Considering this fact, it is imperative that we understand the neural mechanisms underlying suicidal thoughts and behaviors in youth from a neurodevelopmental perspective. In this review, we focused on the magnetic resonance imaging studies that examined the neural correlates of suicidal ideations (SI) or attempts (SA) in youth. We reviewed twenty-three cross-sectional studies reporting the structural and functional alterations in association with SI or SA among adolescents and young adults with various mental disorders. The previous literature suggests that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and ventral frontolimbic circuit, may play an important role in the pathophysiology of suicidal behavior in youth through altered top-down control over emotion and impulsivity. Future studies with a longitudinal design and using multimodal imaging techniques may be of help to identify novel therapeutic targets specific for youth with suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.202-211
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate normal changes throughout aging of the heart in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in healthy volunteers. While type 2 diabetes mellitus is a frequent finding in the elderly population, also the influence of this circumstance in otherwise healthy persons is part of our study. METHODS: In this prospective single-center trial, 75 healthy subjects in distinct age groups and 10 otherwise healthy diabetics were enrolled. All subjects underwent functional, flow sensitive, native T2- and T1-mapping in a 1.5T CMR scanner. RESULTS: No differences in right and left ventricular ejection fractions were observed between aging healthy groups. Bi-ventricular volumes lowered significantly (p<0.001) between the age groups. There was also a significant decrease in myocardial T1 values, aortic distensibility, and left ventricular peak diastolic strain rates. There were no differences in T2 mapping and the other deformation parameters. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus had lower end-diastolic volume indexes; all the other measurements were comparable. CONCLUSIONS: Aging processes in the healthy heart involve a decrease in ventricular volumes, with ejection fractions remaining normal. Stiffening of the myocardium and aorta and a decrease in T1 values are potential indications of age-related remodeling. Type 2 diabetes mellitus seems to have no major influence on aging processes of the heart.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1303-1306
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• 2004

We developed a symmetrical upper limb motion trainer for chronic hemiparetic subjects. This trainer enabled the practice of a forearm pronatio $n^ination and wrist flexion/extension. In this study, we have used functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) with the developed symmetrical upper limb motion device, to compare brain activation patterns elicited by flexion/extension wrist movements of control and hemiparetic subject group. In control group, contralateral somatosensory cortex(SMC) and bilateral cerebellum were activated by dominant hand movement(Task 1), while bilateral movements by dominant hand(Task 2) activated the SMC in both cerebral hemispheres and ipsilateral cerebellum. However, in hemiparetic subject group, contralateral supplymentary motor area(SMA) was activated by unaffected hand movement(Task 1), while the activation of bilateral movements by unaffected hand(Task 2) showed only SMA in the undamaged hemisphere. This study, demonstrating the ability to accurately measure activation in both sensory and motor cortex, is currently being extended to patients in clinical applications such as the recovery of motor function after stroke.ke.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.130-133
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• 2022

Several studies have reported a possible link between anti-aquaporin-4 antibody and vitamin B12 deficiency in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Bilaterally symmetric hyperintense signals on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the posterior columns, called the inverted V sign, are a characteristic feature of subacute combined degeneration associated with vitamin B12 deficiency. We report a patient with anti-aquaporin-4 antibody-positive NMOSD and an inverted V sign on MRI of the spinal cord and address the association between anti-aquaporin-4 antibody and functional vitamin B12 deficiency.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.86-93
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• 2024

The development of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has significantly contributed to mapping brain functions and understanding brain networks during rest. This paper proposes a CNN-LSTM-based classification model to classify the progression stages of Alzheimer's disease. Firstly, four preprocessing steps are performed to remove noise from the fMRI data before feature extraction. Secondly, the U-Net architecture is utilized to extract spatial features once preprocessing is completed. Thirdly, the extracted spatial features undergo LSTM processing to extract temporal features, ultimately leading to classification. Experiments were conducted by adjusting the temporal dimension of the data. Using 5-fold cross-validation, an average accuracy of 96.4% was achieved, indicating that the proposed method has high potential for identifying the progression of Alzheimer's disease by analyzing fMRI data.

• Proceedings of the KSMRM Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.109-111
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• 2003

Compared to the present clinical field strengths, MR at 47 and above promises to improve anatomic imaging quality by factors, and to bring metabolic and functional imaging to the forefront of research and diagnostic modalities. While human bore sized magnets as high as 9.4T are now installed, realization of the potential benefit of these magnets will require more of the MR system than a simple field, frequency or power scaling from technologies used at lower fields. New constraints on the high field MR studies, both physical and physiological, will require new technical developments to be considered for the highest field systems.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.127-136
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• 2009

Purpose : Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess the temporal response of neural activation in healthy subjects while they performed the Iowa Gambling Test (IGT), which utilizes decisions involving ambiguity and risk. The IGT was divided into five blocks of 20 trials; analysis showed that activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) moves gradually from the dorsal to the ventral mPFC over the course of the IGT. These findings suggest that cognitive division of the mPFC, including the dorsal portion of the anterior cingulated cortex (ACC), plays a major role in ambiguous decision making and that the aspect of the IGT corresponding to risky decision making is associated with significant activity within the corticolimbic network strongly implicated in emotion and reinforcement. Our results also suggest that decisions made under ambiguity and decisions made under risk situations can be further divided into sub-phases based on the neural network involved.