Project Grant R01EB035560

This federal Project Grant award of $732,220.00 from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286) will support the development of acquisition, image reconstruction, and analysis tools to comprehensively correct for head motion in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments. The project aims to address the significant challenge of head movement during fMRI studies, which can confound research conclusions, especially in populations prone to movement like young children. The award to The General Hospital Corporation, doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital, will fund the creation of MR navigator scanner software to measure head motion, environmental factors, and signal intensity in real-time, and account for these effects prospectively during data acquisition, reconstruction, and analysis. The goal is to produce easy-to-distribute tools that enable accurate assessment of functional brain networks despite head motion, furthering the understanding and mitigation of motion artifacts in fMRI research. The project will run from July 1, 2024, through April 30, 2028.