• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.157-168
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• 2020

Advancements in segmentation methodology has made automatic segmentation of brain structures using structural images accurate and consistent. One method of automatic segmentation, which involves registering atlas information from template space to subject space, requires a high quality atlas with accurate boundaries for consistent segmentation. The Allen Mouse Brain Atlas, which has been widely accepted as a high quality reference of the mouse brain, has been used in various segmentations and can provide accurate coordinates and boundaries of mouse brain structures for tractography. Through probabilistic tractography, diffusion tensor images can be used to map comprehensive neuronal network of white matter pathways of the brain. Comparisons between neural networks of mouse and human brains showed that various clinical tests on mouse models were able to simulate disease pathology of human brains, increasing the importance of clinical mouse brain studies. However, differences between brain size of human and mouse brain has made it difficult to achieve the necessary image quality for analysis and the conditions for sufficient image quality such as a long scan time makes using live samples unrealistic. In order to secure a mouse brain image with a sufficient scan time, an Ex-vivo experiment of a mouse brain was conducted for this study. Using FSL, a tool for analyzing tensor images, we proposed a semi-automated segmentation and tractography analysis pipeline of the mouse brain and applied it to various mouse models. Also, in order to determine the useful signal-to-noise ratio of the diffusion tensor image acquired for the tractography analysis, images with various excitation numbers were compared.

• Prospectives of Industrial Chemistry
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.26-40
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• 2019

고령화 사회에 접어들면서 신경, 정신질환으로 인한 사회경제적 부담이 늘어나고 있다. 이를 해결하기 위해서는 관련된 신경 회로를 직접적으로 자극하거나 그곳에서 일어나는 일을 실시간으로 감지할 수 있는 장비의 개발이 필수적이다. 하지만 이를 위한 수많은 공학적 도구의 개발에도 불구하고, 뛰어난 공간적/시간적 분해능, 세포형의 선택성, 장시간 안정성을 보유한 신경 인터페이스의 개발은 아직까지도 연구가 필요한 분야이다. 특히 신경전달 원리를 모두 이용하고자 하는 다기능 인터페이스의 개발은 최근 많은 연구자들의 관심 주제이고, 유연성을 가지는 인터페이스 개발 또한 안정성뿐만 아니라 신경 신호의 수명을 좌우하는 중요한 요소이기에 그 중요성을 인정받고 있다. 이를 해결하기 위한 여러 가지 과학적 시도 중에서도, 열 인장 공정으로 제작되는 섬유 형태의 장비는 그 통합적 기능을 수행하는 한 가지 방법으로써 많은 관심을 받고 있다. 이 기술은 다양한 기하학적 구조, 기능적 요소 등을 통합하는데 매우 유리하며, 또한 기존 반도체 공정으로 다루기 어려운 유연성 물질로 마이크로 스케일의 인터페이스를 제작하는 데에 매우 효과적이다. 본 기고문에서는 먼저 현재까지 개발되고 있는 다기능 유연 신경 인터페이스의 연구동향을 소개하고, 특히 그 중에서도 최근에 주목받고 있는 광섬유 기반의 인터페이스 개발에 대해 이야기하고자 한다.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.43-47
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• 2004

Interests in human brain functionality and its connectivity have much frown up. DTI (Diffusion tensor imaging) has been known as a non-invasive MR) technique capable of providing information on water diffusion in tissues and the organization of white matter tract. Thus. It can provide us the information on the direction of brain fiber tract and the connectivity among many important cortical regions which can not be examined by other anatomical or functional MRI techniques. In this study. was used the 24 bit color coding scheme on the IDL platform in the windows environment to visualize the orientation of major fiber tracts of brain such as main association, projection, commissural fibers and corticospinal tracts. We additionally implemented a color coding scheme for each directional component and FA (fractional anisotropy), and used various color tables for them to be visualized more definitely. Consequently we implemented a fancy and basic technique to visualize the directional information of fiber tracts efficiently and we confirmed the feasibility of the 24 bit color coding scheme in DTI by visualizing main fiber tracts.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 2009

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the quantitative evaluation of the corticospinal tract (CST) at the multiple levels by using functional MRI (fMRI) co-registered to diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). Materials and Methods : Ten normal subjects without any history of neurological disorder participated in this study. fMRI was performed at 1.5 T MR scanner using hand grasp-release movement paradigm. DTT was performed by using DtiStudio on the basis of fiber assignment continuous tracking algorithm (FACT). The seed region of interest (ROI) was drawn in the area of maximum fMRI activation during the motor task of hand grasp-release movement on a 2-D fractional anisotropy (FA) color map, and the target ROI was drawn in the cortiocospinal portion of anterior lower pons. We have drawn five ROIs for the measurement of FA and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) along the corona radiata (CR) down to the medulla. Results : The contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex (SM1) was mainly found to be activated in all subjects. DTT showed that tracts originated from SM1 and ran to the medulla along the known pathway of the CST. In all subjects, FA values of the CST were higher at the level of the midbrain and posterior limb of internal capsule (PLIC) than the level of others. Conclusion : Our study showed that co-registered fMRI and DTT has elucidated the state of CST on 3-D and analyzed the quantitative values of FA and ADC at the multiple levels. We conclude that co-registered fMRI and DTT may be applied as a useful tool for clarifying and investigating the state of CST in the patients with brain injury.