The speed of the human brain is remarkable -- in a fraction of a second, neurons are activated, propagating thoughts and reactions to stimuli. But the speed at which we can noninvasively follow brain function using an MRI is not as impressive. Functional MRI (fMRI), which measures changes in blood oxygen levels, has revolutionized the field of neuroscience by revealing functional aspects of the brain. But the changes that fMRI is sensitive to can take up to six seconds in humans -- a veritable eon in brain time. Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital, in collaboration with colleagues at King's College London and INSERM-Paris, have discovered a fundamentally new way to measure brain function using a technology known as magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), an approach that creates maps of tissue stiffness using an MRI scanner. In a paper published in Science Advances, the team presents data from preclinical studies indicating that the technique can track brain function activity on a time scale of 100 milliseconds. Studies of the technique in human participants are now underway.

"What excites me most is that this an entirely new method, and I've always been intrigued by new science," said co-corresponding author Sam Patz, PhD, a physicist in the Brigham's Department of Radiology and professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. This work, which started out as a hunch and is now being borne out by rigorous experiments, represents the collaborative work of an international team dedicated to the pursuit of this new way of imaging brain function. "The data we are publishing was obtained in mice, but translation of this technology to humans is straightforward and initial studies are currently underway."

This work is the culmination of a five-year collaboration between Patz, co-corresponding author Ralph Sinkus PhD, and many others. Sinkus, a physicist and professor at King's College London and INSERM Paris, is a pioneer in the field of MRE and played a key role both in helping get the MRE research program started for preclinical testing in Patz's Boston-based lab as well as in carrying out the research being reported. Both Patz and Sinkus point to each other as an example of how a true collaborative relationship should function.
Although initially interested in applying MRE to the lungs, the team decided to also run scans of the brain. The results from these scans revealed something surprising: The acoustic cortex was stiffening, for no apparent reason. "These results were so unexpected that we had to pursue them, and this observation is what sparked everything else," said Sinkus. "It's a true interest in science that made this happen."

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