We propose here a five-year R01 project to fully develop an integrated RF/shim/WiFi coil array and high-
resolution diffusion MRI (dMRI) methodology for the detailed mapping of spine-brain pathways and their
connections to the brain. This project is motivated by the exponential growth in spinal cord stimulation (SCS)
in the recent decade to treat various brain disorders. Unlike other targeted neural stimulation approaches,
such as deep brain stimulations or DBS, SCS has the advantage of being less invasive, and has the potential to
achieve targeted precision in the brain if appropriate imaging methods can be developed to characterize the
underlying spine-brain pathways. While dMRI is the current method of choice to map neural connectivities, it
is not yet ready to image in the spinal cord due to the pronounced dynamic magnetic field fluctuations arising
from breathing-induced chest wall motions, in addition to the severe static field inhomogeneities at
air/tissue/bone interfaces. While static inhomogeneities would lead to geometric distortions that can be
largely corrected by improved shimming methods and post-processing strategies, dynamic field fluctuations
result in imbalance of the diffusion-weighting gradients and significant signal losses that cannot be corrected
at the present time. It is thus the goal of our project to develop the much-needed imaging hardware and
software solutions to address these challenges, and reliably acquire high-resolution dMRI images to map the
brain-spine pathways and their connections to the brain. Specifically, we will develop an integrated
RF/shim/WiFi coil array with automatic real-time shimming to synchronously compensate for the dynamic
field fluctuations, we will also develop innovative dMRI acquisition strategies to achieve high spatial
resolution with both high temporal throughput and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and we will map in
detail the spine-brain pathways and associated connections to the deep brain and to the relevant cortical
areas, and make these maps publicly accessible. We anticipate that this project will deliver critical imaging
technologies to enable high-resolution dMRI in the brain and spinal cord, which can provide detailed and
standardized maps of the spine-brain connectivities in vivo. It is hoped that these maps will improve the
current practice of SCS by allowing precise planning of the simulation sites in the spinal cord, thereby leading
to increased efficiency and effectiveness in treating patients with various movement and sensory brain
disorders.
