Abstract #1216

A Novel MR-Compatible Hand Induced Robotic Device in Conjunction with FMRI Allows Accurate Brain Mapping

Dionyssios Mintzopoulos¹, Azadeh Khanicheh², Loukas G. Astrakas^1,3, A Aria Tzika¹

¹NMR Surgical Laboratory, MGH & Shriners Hospitals, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; ²Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; ³Medical Physics, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

Using a hand motor squeezing task, we investigated brain activation by combining fMRI at 3T with a novel MR-compatible hand-induced, robotic device (MR_CHIROD). The MR_CHIROD records the exact amount of force at each squeezing cycle. Our results show that the number of activated voxels are significantly different only when using the MR_CHIROD and only when the MR_CHIROD force traces are used as covariates. This means that when MR_CHIROD is used the effort that each individual applies is better represented in the brain cortical map, as shown in representative cases.