Methods and Systems for Automated Functional MRI in Clinical Applications

An automated functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) system, comprising:

• a patient stimulation device configured to stimulate a patient;
• a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) acquisition device configured to acquire functional images of a portion of a brain of said patient in response to a pulse sequence and during stimulation by said stimulation device;
• a stimulation response measurement device configured to record patient response to said stimulation during said stimulation by said stimulation device;
• and
• a control computer configured to mutually synchronize:
• application of stimulation to said patient by said stimulation device;
• acquisition of magnetic resonance (MR) images by said MRI acquisition device, and
• recording patient response to said stimulation, using at least one synchronization signal.

An article of manufacture for operating an automated functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) system, the article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

• controlling a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) device to apply one or more pulse sequences to a portion of a brain of a patient;
• controlling one or more stimulation devices to provide a stimulation of the patient;
• acquiring functional images of said portion of said brain of the patient in response to the applying of the one or more pulse sequences and during stimulation;
• receiving one or more patient responses during the stimulating of the patient;
• and
• synchronizing the stimulation of the patient, the acquiring of the functional images and the receiving of the one or more patient responses using at least one synchronization signal.