Motion Robust Relaxometry for Infant Neuroimaging

ABSTRACT:
Quantitative relaxometry is a promising method for quantifying brain changes with early
development and brain tissue differences as a function of genetics, environment or
pathology. Relaxometry may be useful for assessing abnormal white matter damage in
infants at risk for cerebral palsy, which is the leading movement disorder in children.
Head motion is a significant challenge for MRI studies in young children, resulting in
image artifacts and errors in quantitative imaging measures. Long and loud scans also
adversely affect imaging compliance in young children. Consequently, there is a critical
need to develop imaging methods that are robust to motion, faster, and quieter. This
project will develop, optimize and evaluate novel 3D radial imaging technologies for
multimodal structural imaging and quantitative relaxometry for studies in sleeping
infants and toddlers. The outcome will be a fast, ultra-quiet imaging technique capable
of providing imaging maps of quantitative relaxation times that are robust to nearly all
motions. These optimized, motion-corrected, quantitative relaxometry technologies will
be applied to a cohort of infants and toddlers without sedation to generate
developmental relaxometry templates for normative studies from 0 to 2 years of age.
The normative relaxometry framework will be applied to lesions and abnormal brain
development of infants at risk for or diagnosed with cerebral palsy, The normative
framework will also be used to investigate individual differences in brain and
sensorimotor development in both typical development and cerebral palsy. Ultimately,
this project will provide a set of robust, reliable and accurate image acquisition methods,
software tools, and strategies for investigating healthy and abnormal brain development
in both clinical and research pediatric populations without sedation.

Grant Number: 5R01HD108868-04
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: ANDREW ALEXANDER