Prof's tech captures COVID-19’s impact on the brain

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

A Waterloo Engineering professor's MRI invention reveals better than many existing imaging technologies how COVID-19 can change the human brain.

The new imaging technique known as correlated diffusion imaging (CDI) was developed by Dr. Alexander Wong, a systems design engineering professor, and recently used in a groundbreaking study by scientists at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute and Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.

Wong highlights that the two regions of the brain react differently to COVID-19 and points to two key findings from the research. First, the human cerebellum might be more vulnerable to COVID-19 infections. Second, the study reinforces the idea that COVID-19 infections can lead to changes in the brain.

“Some may think COVID-19 affects just the lungs,” said Wong. “What was found is that this new MRI technique that we created is very good at identifying changes to the brain due to COVID-19. COVID-19 changes the white matter in the brain.”

Wong, a Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Medical Imaging, had previously developed CDI in a successful search for a better imaging measure for detecting cancer. CDI is a new form of MRI that can better highlight the differences in the way water molecules move in tissue by capturing and mixing MRI signals at different gradient pulse strengths and timings.

Go to New imaging technique captures COVID-19’s impact on the brain for the full story.