Events Calendar

MHI Medical Imaging Seminar

Speaker: Wayne Chen, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Southern California

Talk Title: Functional Real-time MRI of the Upper Airway

Series: Medical Imaging Seminar Series

Abstract: MRI is arguably the most promising imaging modality for evaluating upper airway dynamics as it is non-invasive and involves no ionizing radiation. For the past decade, real-time MRI has been extensively used with significant improvement on the spatiotemporal resolution to time-resolve the dynamics of the upper airway during natural speech production and sleep. Existing techniques focus on tracking tissue surfaces, such as vocal track shaping and airway cross-section contour. However, they lack the ability to measure the function of the upper airway, such as the internal muscle movement and the physiological variation across different airway sites.

This talk will introduce new techniques and novel experiment design compatible with real-time MRI techniques in order to reveal the internal muscle motion and physiological traits of the upper airway. We leverage the maturing fast scan methods to provide adequate spatiotemporal resolution, while propose novel techniques and experiment design to go beyond fast. With the proposed methods, we can set our eyes further than the anatomical structures and onto the even more interesting yet intrinsically complex functions of the upper airway.




Biography: Wayne Chen is a Ph.D. candidate working under the supervision of Prof. Krishna Nayak at the Magnetic Resonance Engineering Laboratory. His research focuses on MR pulse sequence development and reconstruction for real-time imaging of the upper airway.

Host: Professor Krishna Nayak

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Talyia White