Ultra­-High Field MRI: Transition to Human 7T in Finland

The Finnish Infrastructures for Functional Imaging (FIFI, functionalimaging.fi) brings together strong Finnish knowledge on magnetoencephalography (MEG), magnetic resonance  imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and navigated transcranial magnetic  stimulation (nTMS), ranging from animal to human studies. FIFI belongs to the Roadmap of Research Infrastructures of the Academy of Finland. The FIFI roadmap includes an ultra-­high field 7T fMRI scanner that would likely be placed in the Aalto University and operate as part of the Aalto NeuroImaging (ANI, ani.aalto.fi​) research infrastructure, which currently houses state­-of­-the­-art MEG, 3T fMRI and nTMS systems. The target year of the acquisition of the 7T fMRI scanner was originally set to 2017.
 
As a part of the preparation process for acquisition of the scanner, we organize a workshop called “Ultra­-High Field MRI: Transition to Human 7T in Finland” at Aalto University,  October 8 – 9, 2015. The purpose of the workshop is to highlight scientific achievements, challenges, and new avenues enabled by ultra-­high field MRI. This meeting brings together a group of top­-level scientists to give presentations. For further interactions between the speakers and the audience the program includes a panel discussion to address the opportunities and challenges of human ultra-high field MRI.

Workshop Memorandum

You can find the workshop memorandum here.

Confirmed Speakers
 

Scientific sessions
 

• Marta Bianciardi, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA.

• Stuart Clare, FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford, UK.

• Elia Formisano, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.

• Risto Kauppinen, School of Experimental Psychology and Clinical Research and Imaging Centre, University of Bristol, UK.

• Mikko Kettunen, A.I.Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.

• Jonathan Polimeni, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA.

• Siegfried Trattnig, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image Guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

• Robert Turner, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.

• Kamil Ugurbil, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

Manufacturers' session
 

• GE Healthcare, Mark Symms

• Philips Healthcare, Karin Markenroth Bloch

• Siemens Healthcare, Christina Triantafyllou

Program and Location
 

Venue: Aalto Design Factory, The Stage (Betonimiehenkuja 5C, Espoo, Finland)

Workshop Organizers

Aalto University School of Science

• Aalto Brain Centre (ABC, brainscience.aalto.fi ​)
• Aalto NeuroImaging (ANI, ani.aalto.fi)
• Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering (NBE, ​nbe.aalto.fi​)

Finnish Infrastructures for Functional Imaging (FIFI, functionalimaging.fi)

Organizing committee:

• Toni Auranen
• Annika Hultén
• Matti Hämäläinen
• Veikko Jousmäki
• Harri Piitulainen
• Ville Renvall
• Riitta Salmelin