Mapping the developing brain

It’s comparable to the difference between still photography and movies. Traditional imaging techniques such as Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) including functional MRI, take a “snapshot” or series of snapshots of the structure and function of the brain. The former two are valuable diagnostic tools. But only magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) show dynamic brain functions in action. MEG does this by recording and imaging (in real time) the tiny magnetic fields generated by electrical currents in the brain.

British Columbia has been a world leader in MEG technology and a pioneer in MEG research for nearly three decades. Dr. Urs Ribary’s arrival at Simon Fraser University (SFU) as the BC Leadership Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience in Childhood Health and Development ensures BC will continue to lead and expand the way. Funding for the BC Leadership Chair program is provided by the provincial government through the Leading Edge Endowment Fund.

Dr. Ribary has some fascinating ideas about brain function and development. And not all have come during the peak of his professional career. For example, when he was a young graduate student at the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, he had a profound insight into how the brain might work. It arose out of his early encounter with plant physiology. “If you sprinkle drops of water on the roots of a tree, the tree absorbs and distributes the moisture to the tiny little leaves in an elegant way,” he says.”

He was just 22 years old when he saw the tree’s transport mechanism as a simplified metaphor for the brain’s information processing. “I was determined to learn more about the developing brain, and how medication can interfere with that development. That’s when I knew my future lay in the applications of brain imaging technology and developmental neuropharmacology.”

He was certainly in the right environment. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has been home to 21 Nobel Prize winners, including Albert Einstein (Physics, 1921) and Wilhelm Roentgen (Physics, 1901). Roentgen discovered X-rays, the basis for the first medical imaging technology. Dr Ribary earned his doctorate at the Institute in neuropharmacology and neuroscience, during the course of which he became familiar with medical imaging techniques. There was one major omission, however.

“No one at the Institute seemed very interested in magnetic imaging 25 years ago. Still, when I expressed an interest, I went to a conference where it was the focus. There I met Dr. Hal Weinberg, who was doing pioneering MEG research at Simon Fraser University’s Department of Psychology. Hal invited me to join him at SFU, and I spent two productive years with him in the mid-eighties to learn the MEG technology.”

Dr. Ribary had hoped to stay at SFU, but instead, accepted an invitation to the New York University Medical Center in New York City. There he remained from 1988 to 2007, becoming Director of its Center for Neuromagnetism. The creation of the BC Leadership Chair enabled him to return to SFU in 2007.

“I was attracted back to BC by the variety of expertise related to brain imaging and range of facilities. SFU is particularly strong in cognitive neuroscience, as well as computer science and engineering. When you add the basic clinical expertise at UBC, BC Children’s Hospital and the state-of-the-art MEG facility at the Down Syndrome Research Foundation in Burnaby – designed and built by a BC company – SFU becomes a very stimulating environment in which to pursue my line of research.”

This research is currently focused on measuring the various frequency waves involved in the brain’s internal communication system, and on establishing baseline information on brain communication dynamics. The goal is to explain human brain function and help determine possible alterations and modification by interventional therapy. “If you want to understand how the brain works, you need to understand its structure, function and connectivity,” he says. “Then you can address the question of whether some parts of the brain are altered and how they can be reorganized, or how other parts can take over from those that are impaired or developing more slowly.

“Yes, we can modify the brain. It’s much easier to do at an early age, when it’s still flexible. This is why my work at the Down Syndrome Research Foundation is so important. Anything we can do to ensure that Down Syndrome children and others with brain impairment can reach their full potential will make this research fully worthwhile. I predict that using MEG to establish a person’s brain function and tracking its communication patterns will become as commonplace as a blood test.”

For additional information, visit the Down Syndrome Research Foundation, www.dsrf.org.