This web page provides updates and disseminates resources related to an innovative 4-year project (2020-2024) based at the University of Minnesota to conduct empirical research and generate evidence-based consensus recommendations for the ethical conduct of research using highly portable, cloud-enabled MRI in new and diverse populations in field settings. The project includes a national Working Group of top neuroethics, neurolaw, and neuroscience experts.
Highly-portable MRI, a transformative technology supported by the NIH BRAIN Initiative, will allow researchers to conduct population-based neuroscience research, including racial and ethnic minorities, rural, and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations that are currently underrepresented in neuroimaging research, and will accelerate research on brain biomarkers for neurodegeneration. This project is addressing fundamental challenges in field-based neuroimaging research such as informed consent, data privacy, and return of results.
This web page includes publications and presentations supported by an NIH Neuroethics administrative supplement (2018-2019) and an NIH Bioethics administrative supplement (2019-2020).
Working Group Members
Publications and Presentations
- Shen, Francis X., Susan M. Wolf, Ramon Gilberto Gonzalez, and Michael Garwood. “Ethical Issues Posed by Field Research Using Highly Portable and Cloud-Enabled Neuroimaging.” Neuron 105, no. 5 (2020): 771-775.
Key Resources:
Ethics and Legal Regulation of Field-Based Neuroimaging
- Bianchi DW, Cooper JA, Gordon JA, Heemskerk J, Hodes R, Koob GF, Koroshetz WJ, Shurtleff D, Sieving PA, Volkow ND, Churchill JD, Ramos KM. Neuroethics for the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative. The Journal of Neuroscience 2018;38(50):10583
- Illes, J. Modulating the Mind. TEXxAbbotsford, Mar 30, 2020.
Science and Technology of Highly Portable MRI
- Geethanath S, Vaughan JT. Accessible magnetic resonance imaging: a review. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging 2019;49(7):e65-e77.
- Sarracanie M, LaPierre CD, Salameh N, Waddington DEJ, Witzel T, Rosen MS. Low-cost high-performance MRI. Scientific Reports 2015;5:1-9.
- Wald LL, McDaniel PC, Witzel T, Stockmann JP, Cooley CZ. Low‐cost and portable MRI. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging 2020;52(3):686-696.
- Cooley CZ, Stockmann JP, Witzel T, LaPierre C, Mareyam A, Jia F, Zaitsev M, Wenhui Z, Stang P, Scott G, Adalsteinsson E, White JK, Wald LL. Design and implementation of a low-cost, tabletop MRI scanner for education and research prototyping. Journal of Magnetic Resonance 2020;310:106625.
- Hyperfine:
- Barber C. An emerging tool for COVID times: The portable MRI. Scientific American, Nov 12, 2020.
- Herper M. Smaller, lighter, cheaper: A serial entrepreneur wants his portable MRI to transform medicine. STAT, Oct 25, 2019.
- Mobile and wearable neuroimaging generally (including EEG and fNIRS):
- Ward JA, Pinti P. Wearables and the brain. IEEE Pervasive Computing 2019;18(1):94-100.
- Stopczynski A, Stahlhut C, Petersen MK, Larsen JE, Jensen CF, Georgieva MG, Andersen TS, Hansen LS. Smartphones as pocketable labs: Visions for mobile brain imaging and neurofeedback. International Journal of Psychophysiology 2014;91(1):54-66.
- Mobile positron emission tomography (PET):
- Bauer CE, Brefczynski‐Lewis J, Marano G, Mandich M, Stolin A, Martone P, Lewis JW, Jaliparthi G, Raylman RR, Majewski S. Concept of an upright wearable positron emission tomography imager in humans. Brain and Behavior 2016;6(9):e00530.
- Mobile magnetoencephalography (MEG):
- Boto E, Seedat ZA, Holmes N, Leggett J, Hill RM, Roberts G, Shah V, Fromhold TM, Mullinger KJ, Tierney TM, Barnes GR, Bowtell R, Brookes MJ. Wearable neuroimaging: combining and contrasting magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography. NeuroImage 2019;201:116099.
- Boto E, Holmes N, Leggett J, Roberts G, Shah V, Meyer SS, Muñoz LD, Mullinger KJ, Tierney TM, Bestmann S, Barnes GR, Bowtell R, Brookes MJ. Moving magnetoencephalography towards real-world applications with a wearable system. Nature 2018;555(7698):657-661.
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and high-density diffuse optical tomography (DOT):
- Baker JM, Rojas-Valverde D, Gutiérrez R, Winkler M, Fuhrimann S, Eskenazi B, Reiss AL, Mora AM. Portable functional neuroimaging as an environmental epidemiology tool: A how-to guide for the use of fNIRS in field studies. Environmental health perspectives 2017;125(9):094502.
- Blasi A, Lloyd-Fox S, Katus L, Elwell CE. fNIRS for tracking brain development in the context of global health projects. Photonics 2019;6(3):89.
- Fishell AK, Arbeláez AM, Valdés CP, Burns-Yocum TM, Sherafati A, Richter EJ, Torres M, Eggebrecht AT, Smyser CD, Culver JP. Portable, field-based neuroimaging using high-density diffuse optical tomography. NeuroImage 2020;215:116541.
- Mobile EEG:
- Lau-Zhu A, Lau MPH, McLoughlin G. Mobile EEG in research on neurodevelopmental disorders: Opportunities and challenges. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 2019;36:100635.
- Park JL, Donaldson DI. Detecting the neural correlates of episodic memory with mobile EEG: Recollecting objects in the real world. NeuroImage 2019;193:1-9.
- Casson AJ. Wearable EEG and beyond. Biomedical Engineering Letters 2019;9(1):53-71.
