Radio frequency shielded booth for multimodal imaging facilities.

When performing functional neuroimaging research, differing modalities provide quite different and complimentary data, while also bring respective strengths and weaknesses. For example, using electroencephalography (EEG), it is possible to study brain function with very high temporal resolution. Problematically, however, EEG has poor accuracy when attempting to determine the brain sources that produce the observed response. By contrast, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides extremely accurate information about which brain regions are activated, but "smears" brain activity across 1-2 seconds of time. By combining the information from these technologies, it is possible to obtain a highly accurate picture of brain activity in both time and space. Having MRI and EEG equipment in the same facilities, however, can pose unique problems, including large artifacts in the EEG that cannot be removed properly if the two systems are operated independently. The PI's lab, equipped with these two technologies in physically adjacent suites, has historically been able to avoid these problems by restricting data collection on the two systems at the same time. THE PROBLEM: Dramatically increased usage that has accompanied the arrival of a new 3T MRI means this approach is no longer realistic. THE SOLUTION: The funds requested in this application will support a RF/sound shielded booth for the EEG equipment to permit parallel operation. This equipment is located within an open-access facility that is the only neuroimaging research lab in Atlantic Canada. As such, it serves the research needs of a multitude of researchers across the region. Ready availability of this equipment impacts research programs (and their associated trainees) in MRI and EEG research. A shielded room will provide a cost-effective solution that allows these programs to run concurrently without conflicting, thereby having a significant positive impact on neuroscience and imaging physics research productivity in Atlantic Canada.