Mapping the Effects of Malnutrition on Brain Development

United States

Joseph Culver of Washington University in St Louis in the U.S. has developed a portable optical neuroimaging technology (high density diffuse optical tomography [HD-DOT]) to assess the effects of malnutrition on brain function in young children in Columbia. Magnetic resonance imaging is currently used to quantify brain development, but this is expensive, not portable, and requires highly trained personnel, making it impractical for low resource settings where malnutrition is common.

Project Stage

Development & Testing

Last update: October 05, 2023

Overview Contributors

Challenge

Malnutrition is a significant issue in low-resource settings and has adverse effects on brain development in children. Traditional methods like magnetic resonance imaging to quantify brain development are expensive, not portable, and require highly trained personnel.

Description

Washington University in St Louis has developed a portable optical neuroimaging technology (high density diffuse optical tomography [HD-DOT]) to image selected functional brain networks in healthy and malnourished children by comparing it with standard magnetic resonance imaging. This approach also includes obtaining accompanying metabolic samples and neuropsychological data.