Seiji Ogawa | |
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| Born | (1934-01-19)19 January 1934 (age 91) Tokyo, Japan |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo Stanford University |
| Known for | fMRI |
| Awards | Max Delbruck Prize (1996) Japan Prize (2003) Gairdner Foundation International Award (2003) Keio Medical Science Prize (2017) Imperial Prize (2025) Japan Academy Prize (2025) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience Biophysics |
| Institutions | AT&T Bell Laboratories Tohoku Fukushi University Osaka University |
Seiji Ogawa (小川 誠二Ogawa Seiji, born January 19, 1934) is a Japanese biophysicist and neuroscientist known for discovering the technique that underliesFunctional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). He is regarded as the father of modern functionalbrain imaging.[citation needed] He determined that the changes in blood oxygen levels cause itsmagnetic resonance imaging properties to change, allowing a map of blood, and hence, functional, activity in the brain to be created. This map reflected whichneurons of the brain responded with electrochemical signals to mental processes. He was the first scientist who demonstrated that the functional brain imaging is dependent on the oxygenation status of the blood, the BOLD effect. The technique was therefore calledblood oxygenation level-dependent or BOLD contrast. Functional MRI (fMRI) has been used to map the visual, auditory, and sensory regions and moving toward higher brain functions such as cognitive functions in the brain.
In 2020, Ogawa was appointed asOsaka University Distinguished Honorary Professor. He is the second scholar to receive this title afterNobel Prize winnerYoichiro Nambu.[1]
Seiji Ogawa trained as an applied physicist in theUniversity of Tokyo and later earned a Ph.D. in chemistry fromStanford. He worked for 33 years in Biophysics research atAT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and was a Distinguished Member of the technical staff. In 2001, he became Director of theOgawa Laboratories for Brain Function Research in Tokyo. Professor Ogawa joined NRI (Neuroscience Research Institute,Gachon University of Medicine and Science, Korea) in 2008 as a Distinguished Professor and leading the fMRI research in conjunction with the new 7.0T MRI system. He has received several awards for his magnetic resonance work, is a member of theInstitute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and has been awarded theJapan Prize.[2]
Ogawa discovered the principle which is now widely used to functionally and physiologically image the brain, particularly thehuman brain. He built on the technology of magnetic resonance imaging by using the difference inblood oxygenation level to generate a brain map corresponding to blood flow to active neurons. This helped to map the functional activity of the brain noninvasively, adding to the structural mapping provided byMRI. FMRI is now widely used in biology, neurobiology, psychology, neurology, and other branches of research and to diagnose the physiological basis of mental illnesses and organic brain dysfunction in clinical medicine.[3]
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