Neuroscape is located at the University of California, San Francisco Mission Bay Campus.
Neuroscape facilities are headquartered in the Sandler Neurosciences Center and consist of an Analytical Suite, a Development Studio, a MRI Lab and Neuroscape Research Labs.
UCSF Mission Bay opened its first research building in 2003. A growing hub for the SF Bay Area biotechnology industry, it now includes seven world-class research facilitates and the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay (Children’s Hospital, Women’s Hospital, Cancer Hospital).
Mission Bay is home to one of the largest neuroscience complexes in the world, comprised of the Sandler Neurosciences Center – headquarters to Neuroscape – and Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Hall. Two additional buildings will continue to expand the neuroscience community on this campus over the next decade – the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences (WIN) and a new Psychiatry building. These two new sites will house Neuroscape facilities.
A 237,000 square foot research facility, located on the Mission Bay campus was completed in 2012. It houses about 100 principal investigators and more than 500 additional researchers and staff. It is a home for the UCSF Department of Neurology, Memory and Aging Center (MAC), the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND), and the Center for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN).
The Sandler Building is the headquarters for Neuroscape, which includes Analytical Suites, a Development Studio, a MRI Lab and Neuroscape Research Labs.
A 150,000-square-foot facility Situated adjacent to UCSF’s Mission Bay campus was completed in 2022. It includes a center for pediatric, adolescent, and family health care, and promotes collaborative research across psychiatry, psychology, neurology, neurosurgery, radiology, pediatrics, anesthesiology, and obstetrics/gynecology – all under one roof.
Neuroscape has a state-of-the-art VR lab on the first floor of the building.
Our Analytical Suites are located on the 5th floor of the Sandler Neurosciences Center and serve as the primary sites for computational activities. It includes three rooms with twenty workstations for our Core team, as well as dedicated rack space in both on- and off-site secure server rooms. All other resources are available to facilitate research and writing (e.g., printer, copier, email, fax, on-line library catalogs).
Computational Core
Neuroscape ‘supercomputer’ for CUDA-enabled data processing
Workstation computers
Computational Core
The Development Studio, located on the 1st floor of the Sandler Neurosciences Center, is the primary site of our tech development projects tasked with both creating new technologies and advancing them to our Neuroscience, Clinical, Education and Arts divisions.
Projects primarily include video game production, VR content creation, CUDA-enabled programming, BCI algorithm creation, MRI processing and website/video content generation and maintenance.
The Neuroscape MRI Lab features a 3T Siemens Prisma Fit MRI scanner with 64- and 20-channel head+neck coils, along with capabilities for simultaneous multi- slice (SMS) diffusion and BOLD imaging, 3D pCASL perfusion, SWI, MR Spectroscopy, and high-resolution anatomical imaging. It has an XR 80/200 gradient coil capable of 80 mT/m @ 200 T/m/s simultaneously on all three axes, resulting in faster imaging in general and significantly improved SNR for diffusion imaging. The TIM RF system with a 64 channel head+neck coil is capable of cutting-edge parallel acquisitions, such as multiband imaging, that enable higher resolution scans in reduced time with minimal artifacts. These features enable us to do connectome-level diffusion imaging and provide a huge improvement in the resolution of our echo-planar based scans, such as fMRI.
The MRI Lab has hardware and software for presentation of visual and auditory stimuli, as well as recording within the scanner of manual responses, eye-movements, galvanic skin response, pulse oximetry, respiration, and EKG.
Lara Stables
Manager, Neuroscape Scanner
Team:
Dr. Sinyeob Ahn, Siemens physicist
Jonathan Bachman, MRI Support Specialist
The Neuroscape Research Labs (NRLs) are unique, state-of-the-art research laboratories that are designed to study novel neurodiagnostic and neurotherapeutic approaches.
NRLs located in Sandler Neuroscience Center and Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building focus on full-body motion capture, Non-invasive brain stimulation, Sensory Immersion and Multimodal Biosensing (MMBS), Mixed Reality, and Psychedelics.
Why did we create NRLS?
Current approaches to studying how the human brain functions and why it goes awry in disease states usually take place in unnatural laboratory settings using contrived experimental paradigms. This hinders us from learning how the brain actually functions in our daily lives.
A high-tech approach to neuroscience, which integrates richly simulated environments, full-body interactivity, and the latest in physiological sensor/motion detection technology, all within a world-class neurological/psychiatric research center will also serve as a unique platform to create and validate novel therapeutics.
The motion capture NRL (12′ x 24′) is primarily used in experiments that involve the integration of immersive sensory environments with full-body interactions.
The Sensory Immersion Lab is a truly unique experimental space designed to provide a full 4D sensory immersion experience while participants undergo recordings with the above MMBS and EEG sensors.The room consists of a 110inch 4K display, a professional-level 5.2 surround sound speaker system, and scent and wind delivery apparatuses. In addition to being acoustically shielded, the room has custom sound absorbing panels for both low and high frequency sound bounces.
The MMBS includes a state of the art system from BIOPAC (MP160) with smart-amp sensors for collecting electrodermal activity (skin conductance levels), electrooculogram (EOG), electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, continuous blood pressure, Trans-Radial Electrical bioimpedance Velocimetry (TREV ), facial electromyography (EMG), and accelerometry. All signals are time-synced to stimulus presentation and incoming EEG data via a 4-channel optical diode trigger. This system includes an advanced scent delivery system (SDS200-SYS) capable of delivering up to 7 stimulus- or time-locked scents (dry or oil-based) which are then rapidly cleared from the room via a carbon air filtration fan. In addition, we can record responses from participants via joystick, keyboard, microphone, squeeze ball, camera, and mouse.
The acoustically-shielded BioSense NRLs (10’ X 12’) are primarily used for non-invasive brain stimulation and multimodal data collection (stress metrics, cognitive assessments, brain activity, eye-movements….). These data often serve as outcome measures to assess the impact of our training studies.
A comfortable and safe environment for administration of psychedelics in research studies. Has a couch for a participant to recline, and seating for two therapists/facilitators to be present throughout the study. The room is equipped with surround sound.
Our newest lab, located in the Pritzker building, is designed for research focusing on virtual reality and augmented reality experiences.
An adjoining, common control room (10’ X 24’) with audio/visual connectivity is used to direct the research experiments that are performed in all three NRLS.
Bridging the gap between
neuroscience and technology.
Bridging the gap between neuroscience and technology.
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