Killam Seminar Series: Jean Chen

Pushing the boundary on the interpretability of resting-state fMRI

Abstract: Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) is a widely used neuroscience tool with well-known capabilities and limitations. A major challenge is in the physiological interpretation of rs-fMRI measurements, the lack of which hampers further clinical application. In this talk, I will present our suite of recent work that uses multi-modal imaging to consolidate the neurometabolic, neuroelectric and hemodynamic interpretations of common rs-fMRI metrics. To do so, we developed and applied a biophysical-modeling-based macrovascular correction method to address the long-standing issue of macrovascular confounds in the BOLD fMRI signal. The results show improved physiological relevance of all rs-fMRI metrics after macrovascular correction, but also reveal that these underpinnings may in fact differ by sex. This work pushes the boundary of interpretability for rs-fMRI and fMRI in general.

Bio: Dr. Chen is Professor of Medical Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, Senior Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, and Canada Research Chair in Neuroimaging of Aging. She completed her MSc in Electrical Engineering at the University of Calgary, then her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the MNI (supervised by Bruce Pike) and her postdoc at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. Her current research revolves around the theme of novel methodological development for the study of brain physiology in aging and age-related brain diseases. Her specific interests include studying the neurovascular and electrophysiological mechanisms underlying resting-state fMRI, as well as integrating diffusion MRI with functional MRI to study brain aging.

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