The UMBC CSEE Seminar Series Presents
Capturing Brain Activity at Rest: Recent Development of Resting-State Functional MRI and Its Potential in Clinical Applications
Dr. Yihong Yang
Neuroimaging Research Branch
National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH
12noon-1pm Friday, 2 Oct. 2015, ITE 102
There has been growing interest in the intrinsic brain activity at “rest” that may be used to reveal circuit-level information of brain functions. Alterations of resting-state brain activity have been implicated in various neurological and psychiatric disorders. In this seminar, the recent development of resting-state fMRI techniques will be introduced and discussed. Applications of these new imaging techniques in clinical applications such as cocaine addiction and traumatic brain injury will be demonstrated.
Dr. Yihong Yang received his Ph.D. in Biophysics, 1995, at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, under Paul C. Lauterbur who share 2003 Physiology or Medicine Nobel price with Peter Mansfield on the development of MRI. He is currently a senior investigator and the chief of MR Imaging and Spectroscopy Section at NIDA. Dr. Yang has made significant contributions to the development of MRI methodology and application of neuroimaging techniques to neurological and psychiatric disorders. He has published over 130 original research papers in leading journals and contributed several book chapters in the fields of functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging and MR spectroscopy, as well as applications of MRI technology to the assessment of brain disorders, particularly in drug addiction. He has served on many NIH Study Sections and other research foundations including Medical Research Council (UK), Alzheimer’s Association, and National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). He is an editorial board member of the Brain Connectivity and Open Neuroimaging Journal. He has trained many post-doctoral and pre-postdoctoral fellows in neuroimaging.