Concurrent non-invasive millisecond imaging of brain and spinal cord in health and disease

Until now most brain imaging has required participants to lie perfectly still in dedicated machines. We recently developed a wearable brain scanner, like a helmet, that can be worn while people behave naturally. We want to extend our development to the spinal-cord, which is responsible for processing information from the brain and the body's periphery. We propose a system, like a helmet plus backpack, that can provide us with images of both brain and spinal-cord function during natural human behaviour. The brain and spinal cord rely heavily on each other, meaning that damage to one affects the other, but it has been very difficult to study these effects in humans. Our new system will be especially important for patients as there are many debilitating conditions (from spinal cord injury to stroke) that could be better diagnosed and treated if we could directly image how the brain and spinal cord interact.