Michael Rivkin, MD
Associate Professor of Neurology
Harvard Medical School/Children's Hospital

MRRC Project(s)

R01 DA06532
MRI followup to prenatal cocaine exposure

P50 HD33803-04
Neurodevelopmental Bases of Learning Disabilities
PI, Project 5: Functional and Structural Imaging of Children with Learning Impairment

N01 NS 9-2314
Pediatric Study Centers for MRI Study of Normal Brain Development

Work at the DevelopmentalNeuroimaging Laboratory (DNL) has focused upon use of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques to study postnatal cerebral and cognitive development in children. Currently, we are using T1W &T2W imaging techniques, diffusion tensor MR, functional MRI (fMRI) and segmentation techniques in combination with the neurologic and neurobeahvioral exams as tools to pursue our research goals. Current projects in the lab consist of investigations of brain development in such diverse pediatric populations as 1, typically developing children; 2, children exposed during prenatal development to toxic drugs; 3, children who received surgical correction of life-threatening congenital cardiac lesions during the first three months of life; 4, long-term survivors of ALL; and 5, children with discrete learning disabilities. The laboratory brings together expertise in computer engineering, magnetic resonance physics, neuropsychology, and pediatric neurology.

We have used MRI combined with neurobehavioral testing to discern both structural and functional imaging differences between children with learning disabilities and matched control children. This NIH funded investigation seeks to identify neurobiologic features which underlie learning disabilities. Both neurobehavioral and MRI data sets have been collected from a series of children, each 10 years of age or younger. Critical differences in the fMRI data between the two study groups are being identified in this study.

In 1999 we were designated a Pediatric Study Center by the NINDS for production of a neuroimaging data base for children of ages 0-18 years. We are one of seven centers in the nation conducting this important research to establish a normative database for postnatal brain development in typically developing children. This award will permit the generation of normative neuroimaging data for children across the entire age range of interest. All imaging data will be acquired in tandem with age-specific neuropsychologic and neurologic data derived from each child. As a result, the work will conjoin neuroanatomic development to cognitive and motor development in children.