fMRI-reference database for the clinic

Many patients undergo surgical treatment every year in the clinic of neurology
and neurosurgery. It is often desirable to assess the organization of brain
structures on the basis of function. It allows the medical experts to determine
the best strategy for a certain patient, such as operating while the patient is
awake or location where the skull should opened to minimize risks of loss of
function.

Functional MRI (fMRI) is well-suited to satisfy these demands. However, fMRI
requires expert knowledge during task development, analysis as well as the
interpretation of functional MR-scans. In order to comply with the demands from
the clinic of neurology and neurosurgery of the UMC Utrecht, it is desirable to
create a fMRI-reference database based on standardized tasks. The database
would allow the practitioner to easily identify (abnormalities of) functional
brain structures. The reference database would also allow for a quality
assessment of the acquired functional MR-scans.

The study's objective is to create an fMRI-reference database in order to make
neuroscientific knowledge easily applicable and accessible to the clinic.

The creation of an fMRI-reference database, involving the scanning of healthy
volunteers, is purely descriptive. The aim of the study is to create references
for fMRI-data that are representative for a number of specific tasks.

To create the references, healthy volunteers will undergo several brain scans:
3 structural images: T1-, T2-, and DTI-weighted images, and series of
functional brain scans acquired during 9 tasks. The tasks are: hand-motor (2x),
foot-motor (2x), mouth-motor, verb generation (language), picture naming,
working memory, and 'resting state'.

There are no known risks of fMRI as it does not make use of contrast agents,
etc. The fMRI-procedure is painless and not uncomfortable. Participants will be
asked to lie still during approximately 1 hour and a maximum duration of 90
minutes, which has been shown to be an acceptable time duration for fMRI
experiments. The tasks are relatively simple and not exhausting. Therefore, the
burden and risks associated with participation are minimal.