The vision of my research program is to develop imaging and interventional tools to allow for high-quality multimodal brain imaging and intervention for both neuroscience studies and clinical usage. Toward this ultimate aim, I have been devoting to the technical development of human neuroimaging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to provide high spatiotemporal resolution non-invasive imaging of human brain structure, hemodynamics, neuronal activity, and metabolism. I have been developing methods and applications using multi-channel receiver coil arrays to enable highly parallel MRI acquisitions of human and animal anatomy, metabolism, and hemodynamic functions. Beyond MRI, I have been endeavoring to combine EEG/MEG with MRI to provide neurophysiological information. Specifically, I have created widely used methods to integrate high spatial resolution anatomical MRI with distributed EEG/MEG source modeling. These efforts have also enabled the characterization of oscillatory neuronal activity in the cerebral cortical space. I also developed strategies to use functional MRI (fMRI) to help reduce ambiguity in EEG/MEG source modeling by taking advantage of fMRI's higher spatial resolution and homogeneous sensitivity over the whole brain.
To overcome the barrier of passive observation in neuroimaging, I have been working on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to actively and non-invasively manipulate neuronal activity. TMS can non-invasively induce electric fields to excite neurons at a focal area by applying transient magnetic pulses through the scalp. TMS, EEG/MEG, and MRI are tools to realize the overarching objective of my research of establishing a platform with seamlessly integrated non-invasive multimodal neuroimaging and neuromodulation methods Specifically, in this integrated platform, fMRI and EEG/MEG will guide the location and timing of TMS pulses. Tailored TMS pulses will bring maximal modulatory effect and reproducibility at targeted brain areas. TMS dosage will be titrated by carefully measuring both hemodynamic and neural responses elicited by TMS. Ultimately, the TMS-fMRI-EEG platform will reveal, validate, and control how mental processing is coordinated across widespread, functionally connected brain regions by applying TMS pulses simultaneously at different target areas at well-planned time instants informed by brain dynamics. The integrated multimodal neuroimaging and neuromodulation platform will have great potential to benefit 1.5 million Canadians suffering from mood disorders by providing spatiotemporally accurate TMS treatment guidance tailored for each patient.