History
'The Functional Imaging Laboratory (FIL)', was founded in 1994 following a major grant award from the Wellcome Trust. This provided for a new building, capital equipment and core staff support. The award enabled a core group of scientists, based at the Medical Research Council Cyclotron Unit, at the Hammersmith Hospital to relocate their activity to a central London site, within UCL.
In 1994 the principal neuroimaging research tool was positron emission tomography (PET). Over the next decade functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) became the primary investigative tool of the FIL, leading to PET decommissioning in 2004. Currently, the investigative tools of the laboratory include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) magneto-encephalography (MEG) and electro-encephalography (EEG). The laboratory has continued to enjoy core Wellcome Trust infrastructure support through major grant awards in 1999 and 2004.
In 2006, following a successful bid for a Strategic Award the laboratory was awarded Wellcome Trust Centre status, and is now known as the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL. In January 2007 a team from the Centre published research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which concluded that some people with amnesia may not only have difficulty recalling the past but also have difficulty imagining future experiences. In May 2007 a team led by Ben Seymour of the Centre published research in the Journal of Neuro-science which showed that that losing money, or anticipating such a loss, stimulates the striatum in the brain, a circuit involved in the processing of pain and fear. In June 2008 a team from the Centre published research in the journal Neuron showing that the ventral striatum region of the brain is more active when subjects chose unusual objects in controlled tests. In December 2010 a team from the Centre published research in the journal Nature Neuroscience which showed that humans see the world differently according to the size of the visual cortex in their brain.
Read more about this topic: Wellcome Trust Centre For Neuroimaging
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