Despite tremendous research efforts, the neurophysiological basis of the fMRI signals remains unclear, limiting its data interpretation and potential clinical applications. This problem primarily stems from different neurovascular coupling among brain areas and also in various disease states. We therefore attempt to develop and test the feasibility of using an innovative MR-compatible electrode array for simultaneous fMRI, electrophysiological recording, and/or deep brain stimulation; as such hybrid technology shows tremendous promise to reveal the underpinnings of the fMRI signals and provides invaluable complementary information to study brain functions and network connectivity. This project is in collaboration with Blackrock microsystems (http://blackrockmicro.com) with a hope to create commercial products for this application. We are well-positioned to carry out this study as we pioneered the design of MR-compatible polyimide-based multichannel microelectrodes (Lai et al., J Neural Eng, 2012) and possess extensive experience with electrophysiology and fMRI (Shih et al., Neuroimage, 2013; Shih et al., J Cereb Blood Flow Metab, 2014).
