Waiting Area | Interview & Assessment Spaces
The BIRC waiting area is a public space including a receptionist space, waiting room, restroom, urinalysis lab, interview room, MRI Simulator room, and janitor’s facilities. Each BIRC research assistant is equipped with a private office in which subject interviews and assessments are conducted. Additional individual interview rooms and family meeting rooms are available for use as needed.
Image Processing and Analysis Lab ( IPAL)
The IPAL is a collaborative work space for BIRC faculty members, research coordinators, and students. Featuring three private offices and an open floor plan of eight workstations equipped with presentation video projection equipment and a wall of glass whiteboard, the IPAL is an immersive teaching environment that facilitates active, engaged learning experiences for students and visiting researchers.
MRI Room
The 1231 sq ft scanner space houses a scanner room, control room, equipment room, and patient changing room. The BIRC scanner room has three custom wave guides, in addition to the primary penetration panel, to permit the MR-shielded and non-ferromagnetic application of visual stimulus projection, psychophysiological monitoring, and response acquisition devices. The adjacent control room permits constant visual and auditory contact with subjects
3 Tesla Prisma MRI Scanner
The BIRC has a very powerful MRI scanner dedicated to functional and structural human brain mapping. Working as a magnetic prism, the 3 Tesla Siemens Magneton Prisma is a state-of-the-art, sensitive MRI scanner. The Prisma scanner allows for whole brain Functional MRIs to be acquired every 800 ms at 2 mm isotropic resolution with excellent long-term stability, and functional and structural integration. Structural brain images are acquired at very high resolution using distortion-free multiband/multi-shell/multi-shot pulse sequences, which have greater sensitivity to the fine connectivity between specialized brain regions. Spectral diffusivity is a flagship of the BIRC’s scanner enabled by the impeccable field homogeneity of the Prisma, which is used to resolve multiple diffusion directions within each voxel, revealing even crossing fibers in the deep brain structures. The BIRC’s Prisma MRI scanner is a fundamental tool to advancing mental heath research and medical practice, generating direct positive impact to the Arkansas community and beyond.
MRI Simulator
The BIRC’s Psychology Software Tools, Inc MRI Simulator offers research participants an opportunity to experience a simulated MRI scanning environment prior to their MRI research scan. It features an integrated control panel, motorized patient table with drag sensing safety stop, lights, fan, speakers & subwoofer, and task projection system. This simulated experience enhances the safety, feasibility, and image quality of BIRC research projects.