The Neuroscience Neuroimaging Center (NNC P30 NS45839) is an NIH/NINDS-funded P30 Center Core project which provides support for technical aspects of neuroimaging using MRI, including experimental design, data acquisition, and image analysis, and would interface with several other complementary programs in brain, behavior, and imaging. The NNC allows NINDS investigators and other neuroscientists, both with and without specific funding and expertise in neuroimaging, to easily carry out state-of-the-art experiments based on their hypotheses of interest. This will facilitate the usage of neuroimaging in neuroscience research, and improve the quality and sophistication of neuroimaging experiments. The NNC benefits from an extraordinarily rich neuroimaging Neuroscience research environment at the University of Pennsylvania, and provides support and consolidation of technical skills and expertise in neuroimaging through the following Core modules:

An Administrative Core provides oversight for the NNC, administrative support for NNC resources, regulatory support for NNC users, and is guided by a Steering Committee comprised of Core Directors, consortium representatives, user representative, and Neurology and Radiology department chairs.

An Acquisition Core provides technical support for magnetic resonance and optical imaging protocol development and implementation, imaging quality assurance, and for implementing approaches for ancillary methods such as EEG/ERP, TMS, physiological monitoring and gating, neuropsychological task design, and behavioral response monitoring.

The Data Analysis Core integrates Penn ’s world-class research and development programs in neuroimaging data analysis to provide consultation and customization for experimental and statistical design, image processing and analysis, and data visualization and interpretation to support structural morphometry, diffusion tensor tractography, localized and global brain segmentation, image visualization, statistical modeling, and genomic analyses.

A Computing (Informatics) Core maintains a state-of-the-art data processing facility with distributed computing, data storage and archiving, integration of neuroimaging data analysis environments, and provides system administration support. These services include maintenance of a 380-core computer cluster running the Oracle (formerly Sun Grid) Engine and a suite of neuroimaging analysis software.