International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Joint Workshop of the Ultra-High Field MR & Brain Function Study Groups

International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Joint Workshop of the Ultra-High Field MR & Brain Function Study Groups is organized by International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and will be held from Mar 31 - Apr 02, 2025 at Graduate by Hilton Annapolis, Annapolis, Maryland, United States of America.

Workshop Overview:
This workshop is jointly organized by the Brain Function Study Group and the High-Field MR Study Group. High field human MR technologies have been rapidly developing and have started to make inroads into clinical applications. Such advancement has been driven by the continuous pursuit of higher MR sensitivity and spatial resolution of MR images. This is particularly the case for brain function research. Advanced functional MRI approaches have been developed on high field, which allows the detection of neuronal activities at the mesoscopic spatial regime of cortical layers. On the other hand, large-scale and multimodal fMRI studies are being conducted at all field strengths, providing important insights into brain function and its relationship with demographics, physiology and disease. This interplay between brain function research and high field MR technology keeps driving both fields forward, which forms the basis of this joint workshop.

The joint workshop will adopt a two-and-a-half-day format, consisting of parallel sessions from both Study Groups on the first and third (half) day, and joint sessions on the second day. In the parallel sessions, state-of-the-art technologies and applications in each field will be presented, which include fMRI across different field strengths and high field MR in other body parts. In the joint sessions, the focus will be high resolution functional MRI and its applications in basic and clinical neuroscience. We will make efforts to include some educational talks in the joint sessions to accommodate attendees from both study groups. In addition to invited talks and proffered oral presentations, ample time will be provided for live discussions and interactions.

Educational Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

• Describe advanced high resolution fMRI approaches developed on high-field;
• Describe various contrast mechanisms underlying fMRI acquisition and post-processing strategies;
• Describe the main challenges of high field MR technologies and recent advances in methods to address them; and
• Describe the potential of fMRI approaches at different field strengths in both basic and clinical neuroscience.