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Dr. James Pekar is a research scientist at Kennedy Krieger Institute and is Manager and Research Coordinator of the F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging. He is also an Associate Professor in the Russel H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Biographical Sketch:
Dr. Pekar completed his undergraduate degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and went on for a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1988. After fellowships at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Dr. Pekar served as an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neurobiological Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at the Institute for Cognitive and Computational Sciences at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Pekar joined Kennedy Krieger in 1999 and currently serves as Manager and Research Coordinator of the F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging.
Research Summary:
Dr. Pekar is a biophysicist who uses a variety of magnetic resonance techniques to study brain physiology and function. The F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging is a research resource where imaging scientists and neuroscientists collaborate to study brain function using unique state-of-the-art techniques in a safe, comfortable environment, to further develop such techniques, and to provide training and education. As Manager, Dr. Pekar works with center staff to serve the center's users and to keep the center on the leading edge of technology.
How do we see, hear, and think? More specifically, how can we study living people to understand how the brain sees, hears, and thinks? Recently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a powerful anatomical imaging technique widely used for clinical diagnosis, was further developed into a tool for probing brain function. By sensitizing magnetic resonance images to the changes in blood oxygenation that occur when regions of the brain are highly active, we can make "movies" that reveal the brain at work. Dr. Pekar works on the development and application of this MRI technology.
Recent Publications/Presentations:
Pekar JJ. A brief introduction to functional MRI. IEEE Eng Med Biol Mag. 2006 Mar-Apr;25(2):24-6.
Cutting LE, Clements AM, Courtney S, Rimrodt SL, Schafer JG, Bisesi J, Pekar JJ, Pugh KR. Differential components of sentence comprehension: beyond single word reading and memory. Neuroimage. 2006 Jan 15;29(2):429-38.
Calhoun VD, Pekar JJ, Pearlson GD. Alcohol intoxication effects on simulated driving: exploring alcohol-dose effects on brain activation using functional MRI. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2004 Nov;29(11):2097-17.
Mostofsky SH, Schafer JG, Abrams MT, Goldberg MC, Flower AA, Boyce A, Courtney SM, Calhoun VD, Kraut MA, Denckla MB, Pekar JJ. MRI evidence that the neural basis of response inhibition is task-dependent. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2003 Jul;17(2):419-30.
Lu H, Golay X, Pekar JJ, Van Zijl PC. Functional magnetic resonance imaging based on changes in vascular space occupancy. Magn Reson Med. 2003 Aug;50(2):263-74.
Yantis S, Schwarzbach J, Serences JT, Carlson RL, Steinmetz MA, Pekar JJ, Courtney SM. Transient neural activity in human parietal cortex during spatial attention shifts. Nat Neurosci. 2002 Oct;5(10):995-1002.
Calhoun VD, Adali T, Pearlson GD, Pekar JJ. A method for making group inferences from functional MRI data using independent component analysis. Hum Brain Mapp. 2001 Nov;14(3):140-51. | 