Sub-millimetre structural connectivity imaging of cortical, subcortical and spinal pathways in humans. (360G-Wellcome-100092_Z_12_Z)

I will enable sub-millimetre diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) by developing two techniques designed to take advantage of the benefits of high-field MRI (7 Tesla). First, I will develop the second generation of simultaneous multi-slice imaging for high-field based on my recent PINS radio-frequency (RF) pulse technology[21-23]. Second, I will tailor parallel RF transmission techniques for use with PINS to address critical sources of field inhomogeneity. These advances will enable tr act reconstructions in a number of scenarios that are currently problematic due to fine-scale geometry. In collaboration with Prof. Johansen-Berg, I will validate the high-resolution accuracy to a post-mortem reference resource developed in Oxford by Dr. Miller. I will then address specific challenges that have held back dMRI of the spinal cord during a 12-month placement in Prof. Ladds lab, which has developed spinal imaging hardware and related RF transmit techniques. During the final year, I will return to Oxford to merge these threads of research to produce spinal diffusion techniques for use in pain research, in close collaboration with Prof. Irene Tracey.