Department News
State-of-the-art MRI Scan Watches the Brain at Work

John Sweeney, Ph.D, a nationally renowned specialist in neurocognitive research and brain imaging, is developing a new center for cognitive medicine that will bridge psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, psychology and neuroradiology.

As part of the center, a new Advanced Cognitive Medicine Clinic now being developed will be among the first in the country to use functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) for clinical purposes. Using a powerful new state-of-the-art fMRI scanner, specialists can see anatomical details of the brain as well as changes in brain activity that occur when people think, feel and act.

When integrated with anatomic studies, functional MR studies will yield more comprehensive brain evaluations that will better inform treatment decisions, and will help monitor treatment response and the course of brain diseases.

Dr. Sweeney, a recent "star recruit" for the Department and the University, believes the new program will place UIC at the cutting edge of clinical programs evaluating brain disorders. In addition to this new clinical service, Dr. Sweeney is also developing a new research program, the Neurocognitive Assessment and Brain Imaging Program. This program will apply novel neurocognitive strategies linked with functional MRI to investigate the brain bases of major psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, mood disorders and autism. Dr. Sweeney is strongly committed to using fMRI to identify individuals at risk for psychotic and affective illnesses before symptoms are manifest so the disorders can be delayed or prevented.

"In the past ten years, psychiatric research has 'raised the bar' in terms of what we know now about brain function, and about the causes and treatments of diseases that have plagued society for centuries," said Dr. Joseph Flaherty, Professor and Head of Psychiatry. "With John Sweeney on our team, we have a key addition to our collaborative efforts to further explore how the brain works and how to best treat and perhaps one day completely prevent such devastating disorders as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease," he said.

Very high-field MRI scanners allow investigators to examine the mind in action by characterizing regional changes in brain activity during sensory processing, motor activity and complex cognitive functions such as problem solving and memory. When a patient is asked to perform a mental task, the increased neuronal activity triggers an influx of blood to support the metabolic demands of the brain regions performing the mental work. The increased blood flow is more highly oxygenated, which changes its magnetic properties. These changes can be detected with a very high-field MRI scanner, allowing researchers to track brain function more closely than ever before.

To obtain images of the working brain, patients are placed on a table and moved into the center of the tubular MR magnet. Images are acquired at a rapid rate while patients perform cognitive tasks. To map the language comprehension network of the brain, for example, patients are given sentences of varying complexity to read. To map the motor areas patients can simply tap their fingers or move their eyes.

"For the first time, we'll be able look at abnormal brain function and not only see what goes wrong, but perhaps begin to tap into the brain's innate ability to adjust and realign itself. We might, for example, be able to determine which regions of a patient's brain are affected by psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder -- it probably differs from patient to patient -- and to learn about genetically transmitted neurodevelopmental disturbances that disrupt normal brain function and increase the risk for major psychiatric disorders," Dr. Sweeney said.

"Researchers are just beginning to explore fMRI's clinical applications, which will likely have important uses in all clinical disciplines interested in brain disorders," Dr. Sweeney said. For example, guided by data from the scanner, surgeons will be able to avoid damaging cortical areas that perform critical cognitive functions such as language and hand movement when tumors or epileptogenic tissues are excised, Dr. Sweeney said. Various fMRI techniques can also help monitor outcomes after neurological surgery and track the effects of rehabilitation therapies after stroke and head injury. By integrating these new imaging procedures with neuropsychological evaluations coordinated by Neil Pliskin, Ph.D, who recently joined the Center for Cognitive Medicine as co-Director, a range of new services will be available for diagnostic evaluations of brain disorders.

Functional MRI also has great potential as a tool for clinical investigators interested in the neurobiological causes of cognitive and emotional disturbances in patients with severe mental illness, Dr. Sweeney said. He is recruiting a team of investigators in Psychiatry to make this effort a major thrust of the Department's research efforts.