• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.241-252
• /
• 2005

In this study we suggest that the spatial correlation structure of the brain fMRI data be used to characterize the functional connectivity of the brain. For some concussion and recovery data, we examine how the correlation structure changes from one step to another in the data analyses, which will allow us to see the effect of each analysis to the spatial correlation or the functional connectivity of the brain. This will lead us to spot the processes which cause significant changes in the spatial correlation structure of the brain. We discuss whether or not we can decompose correlation matrices in terms of its causes of variations in the data.

• Proceedings of the KSMRM Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.85-85
• /
• 2003

Purpose： 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. Materials and methods： 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 peformed in 12 normal healthy subjects during two stimulation paradigms; acupuncture manipulation on GB34 and sham points. This study investigates the activation of the motor 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.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.525-534
• /
• 1996

We have developed a fast steady state free precession interferometry (SSFPI) technique which is useful for the fMRl (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). As is known, SSFP sequence with a suitable adjustment of Vadient (readeut) allows us to measure precession angle 6 which in tw relates to the field inhomogeneity. Combining the two pulses (known as FID and Echo) in FADE (Fast Acquisition Double Echo) sequence, for example, one can obtain the interference term which is directly related to the precession angle It has been known that a fast high resolution magnetic field mapping is possible by use of the modified FADE sequence or SSFPI, and we have attempted to use the SSFPI technique for the susceptibility-induced fMRl. When the method is applied to the susceptibility effect based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRl), it was found that the direct susceptibility effect measurement was possible without perturbations such as the backgrounds and inflow effect. In this paper, simulation results and experimental results obtained with 2.0 Tesla MRI system are presented.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.894-908
• /
• 2019

Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage renal disease, as it extends survival and increases quality of life in these patients. However, chronic allograft injury continues to be a major problem, and leads to eventual graft loss. Early detection of allograft injury is essential for guiding appropriate intervention to delay or prevent irreversible damage. Several advanced MRI techniques can offer some important information regarding functional changes such as perfusion, diffusion, structural complexity, as well as oxygenation and fibrosis. This review highlights the potential of multiparametric MRI for noninvasive and comprehensive assessment of renal allograft injury.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.55-64
• /
• 2019

Purpose: One of the suggested potential mechanisms of tinnitus is an alteration in perception in the neural auditory pathway. The aim of this study was to investigate the difference in laterality in functional connectivity between tinnitus patients and healthy controls using resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). Materials and Methods: Thirty-eight chronic tinnitus subjects and 45 age-matched healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Connectivity was investigated using independent component analysis, and the laterality index map was calculated based on auditory (AN) and dorsal attention (DAN), default mode (DMN), sensorimotor, salience (SalN), and visual networks (VNs). The laterality index (LI) of tinnitus subjects was compared with that of normal controls using region-of-interest (ROI) and voxel-based methods and a two-sample unpaired t-test. Pearson correlation was conducted to assess the associations between the LI in each network and clinical variables. Results: The AN and VN showed significant differences in LI between the two groups in ROI analysis (P < 0.05), and the tinnitus group had clusters with significantly decreased laterality of AN, SalN, and VN in voxel-based comparisons. The AN was positively correlated with tinnitus distress (tinnitus handicap inventory), and the SalN was negatively correlated with symptom duration (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that various functional networks related to psychological distress can be modified by tinnitus, and that this interrelation can present differently on the right and left sides, according to the dominance of the network.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.26-36
• /
• 2024

Functional brain imaging techniques have been used to diagnose psychiatric disorders such as dementia, depression, and autism. Recently, these techniques have also been actively used to study hearing loss. The present study reviewed the application of the functional brain imaging techniques in auditory research, especially those focusing on hearing loss, over the past decade. EEG, fMRI, fNIRS, MEG, and PET have been utilized in auditory research, and the number of research studies using these techniques has been increasing. In particular, fMRI and EEG were the most frequently used technique in auditory research. EEG studies mostly used event-related designs to analyze the direct relationship between stimulus and the related response, and in fMRI studies, resting-state functional connectivity and block designs were utilized to analyze alterations in brain functionality in hearing-related areas. In terms of age, while studies involving children mainly focused on congenital and pre- and post-lingual hearing loss to analyze developmental characteristics with and without hearing loss, those involving adults focused on age-related hearing loss to investigate changes in the characteristics of the brain based on the presence of hearing loss and the use of a hearing device. Overall, ranging from EEG to PET, various functional brain imaging techniques have been used in auditory research, but it is difficult to perform a comprehensive analysis due to the lack of consistency in experimental designs, analysis methods, and participant characteristics. Thus, it is necessary to develop standardized research protocols to obtain high-quality clinical and research evidence.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.110-116
• /
• 2006

Finite element method (FEM) provides several advantages over other numerical methods such as boundary element method, since it allows truly volumetric analysis and incorporation of realistic electrical conductivity values. Finite element mesh generation is the first requirement in such in FEM to represent the volumetric domain of interest with numerous finite elements accurately. However, conventional mesh generators and approaches offered by commercial packages do not generate meshes that are content-adaptive to the contents of given images. In this paper, we present software that has been implemented to generate content-adaptive finite element meshes (cMESHes) based on the contents of MR images. The software offers various computational tools for cMESH generation from multi-slice MR images. The software named as the Content-adaptive FE Mesh Generation Toolbox runs under the commercially available technical computation software called Matlab. The major routines in the toolbox include anisotropic filtering of MR images, feature map generation, content-adaptive node generation, Delaunay tessellation, and MRI segmentation for the head conductivity modeling. The presented tools should be useful to researchers who wish to generate efficient mesh models from a set of MR images. The toolbox is available upon request made to the Functional and Metabolic Imaging Center or Bio-imaging Laboratory at Kyung Hee University in Korea.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.85-90
• /
• 2011

Purpose: The contribution of the supplementary motor area (SMA) to the control of voluntary movement has been revealed. We investigated the changesin the SMA for motor learning of the reaching movement in stroke patient using functional MRI. Methods: The subject was a right-handed 55 year-old woman with left hemiparesis due to an intracerebral hemorrhage. She performed reaching movement during fMRI scanning before and after reaching training in four weeks. The motor assessment scale and surface EMG were used to evaluate the paretic upper limb function and muscle activation. Results: In the fMRI result, contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex (SM1) was activated before and after training. SMA was only activated after training. In addition, muscle activation of the paretic upper limb was similar to that of the unaffected upper limb after training. Conclusion: These findings suggest SMA is related to the execution of a novel movement pattern resulting in motor learning in stroke patients.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
• /
• v.1995 no.11
• /
• pp.173-176
• /
• 1995

We have developed a fast steady state free precession interferometry (SSFPI) technique which is useful for the fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). As is known, SSFP sequence with a suitable adjustment of gradient (readout) allows us to measure precession angle $\theta$ which is in turn related to the field inhomogeneity [1-3]. When the method is applied to the susceptibility effect based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it was found that the direct susceptibility effect measurement was possible without perturbations such as the backgrounds and inflow effect. In this paper, simulation results and experimental results obtained with 2.0 Tesla MRI system are also presented.

• International Journal of Contents
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.56-63
• /
• 2012

In recent decades, analyzing the activities of human brain achieved some accomplishments by using the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technique. fMRI data provide a sequence of three-dimensional images related to human brain's activity which can be used to detect instantaneous cognitive states by applying machine learning methods. In this paper, we propose a new approach for distinguishing human's cognitive states such as "observing a picture" versus "reading a sentence" and "reading an affirmative sentence" versus "reading a negative sentence". Since fMRI data are high dimensional (about 100,000 features in each sample), extremely sparse and noisy, feature selection is a very important step for increasing classification accuracy and reducing processing time. We used the Fisher Discriminant Ratio to select the most powerful discriminative features from some Regions of Interest (ROIs). The experimental results showed that our approach achieved the best performance compared to other feature extraction methods with the average accuracy approximately 95.83% for the first study and 99.5% for the second study.