Keck lab ready to begin brain imaging studies

The $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior opened this month, promising to give scientists better views of brain function that could reveal more about emotions, learning and mental disorders.

Linked with the Waisman Center and Medical School’s HealthEmotions Research Institute, the new laboratory builds on more than a decade of emotion research at the university.

The 17,000-square-foot facility comprises the first floor of a major addition to the Waisman Center, a national center for the study of development and developmental disabilities. The lab will include home offices for more than a dozen faculty and staff, while also being a resource for more than 50 neuroscience faculty.

Two new machines feature sophisticated, non-invasive medical imaging technology. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows different structures of the brain as it works, while positron emission tomography (PET) can help track biochemical activity.