Rutgers University Brain Imaging Center

Thanks to a $1.82 million grant from the National Science Foundation, scholars at Rutgers will have direct access to the latest functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to aid their research. Functional MRI scans measure the change in blood flow related to neural activity in the brain. Minimally invasive, fMRIs allow for precise measurement of the source and destination of major neural pathways and provide insight into how the brain learns.

Rutgers-Newark will acquire the Siemens Trio 3T MRI scanner, which will be housed at the newly formed Rutgers University Brain Imaging Center (RUBIC) in the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience (CMBN) building in Newark. The scanner will be available for research throughout all three Rutgers campuses.

Scholars at Rutgers-Newark using an fMRI scanner in their research include: Mauricio Delgado, Stephen Hanson, Kent Harber, Barry Komisaruk, Vanessa LoBue, Maggie Shiffrar, and Elizabeth Tricomi of the Dept. of Psychology; and April Benasich, Gyorgy Buzsaki, Mark Gluck, Bart Krekelberg, and Paula Tallal of CMBN. Representative projects include: research on early neural mechanisms necessary for normal cognitive and language development; human motion perception and its deficits in autism; and control/regulation of human emotions to facilitate learning and decision-making.

To learn more about RUBIC, visit http://rubic.rutgers.edu.