UH research team developing new noninvasive brain-mapping ...( Two Japanese scientists will arrive ...),Health

Two Japanese scientists will arrive at the University of Houston next month to help develop a unique brain-mapping device that promises to deliver more comprehensive and accurate insights into the mind at a fraction of the cost of current technologies.

In April, Mikio Kubota of Seijo University and Mayako Inouchi of Waseda University will join the research team at UH's Biomedical Imaging Lab. There they will work as visiting faculty members with lab director George Zouridakis in expanding a noninvasive technology that may offer a more thorough understanding of brain activities and help diagnose traumatic brain injuries in emergency rooms and on the battlefield.

"We are excited to arrive to Houston, which is a place with the largest medical center in the world and home to so many universities and research labs. It provides a unique opportunity for collaboration," said Kubota.

The device the team has in the works fits on a patient's head, Zouridakis explained, and its configuration of fiber optics and special electrodes sends light, via laser diodes, into the brain. The light, which becomes scattered as it travels through the layers of the brain tissue, is then reflected back out of the brain and is measured by a set of sensors. It is the reflected light's unique properties that indicate what's going on in the brain, he said.

"The typical approach currently used for brain mapping is functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI," said Zouridakis, associate professor at UH's College of Technology. "However, an fMRI scanner is expensive, on the order of millions of dollars, and confined in one place, as it requires a shielded room because of the strong magnetic fields. It also requires specialized personnel to maintain and operate."

Zouridakis said his team aims to eliminate such obstacles.

"Our technology marries high-density electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures the electrophysiological activity of
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