Congratulations to Edinburgh researchers who successfully obtained funding to conduct pediatric fMRI research. Image Dr. Richardson & a child viewing an image of the child's brain, together. After participating in an MRI study, children get to take home a picture of their brain. Wellcome Trust & The University of Edinburgh Institutional Strategic Support Fund granted University of Edinburgh researchers funding to establish a new research capacity for conducting pediatric fMRI research. The team will develop & pilot an fMRI protocol for five-year-old children & then use this protocol to study brain development in the Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort (TEBC) - a large, prospective longitudinal study on children born preterm. We asked Hilary Richardson, Lecturer in Developmental Psychology & Principle Investigator her thoughts on receiving the award. “Pediatric fMRI research is particularly challenging because it requires acclimating children to the MRI environment & training them to stay very still. It also requires specialized methods for collecting & analyzing the data. Creating the infrastructure for pediatric fMRI research will not only enable curating a unique fMRI dataset of young children born preterm, via the TEBC research study, but it will also lay the groundwork for future pediatric fMRI studies at the University of Edinburgh.” Related links Professor James Boardman Dr Hilary Richardson Dr Michael Thrippleton Professor Sue Fletcher-Watson Dr Mark Bastin University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh Institutional Strategic Support Fund Wellcome Trust Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort (TEBC) What is a fMRI scan? What is a MR scan? Social media tags & titles Congratulations to Edinburgh researchers who successfully obtained funding to conduct pediatric fMRI research. @EdinUniMedicine @SchoolofPPLS @MRC_CRH @theirworld @wellcometrust @JamesPeterBoar2 @hil_richardson Publication date 23 Feb, 2021
