CINL Facilities

The Civitan International Neuroimaging Lab (CINL) is a 5,000 square foot facility located on the first floor of UAB Hospital-Highlands. The facility consists of the Siemens 3T MAGNETOM Prisma MRI suite, two private interview rooms dedicated to pre-/post-scan patient screening and testing, two MRI preparation rooms with lockers, and an equipment room. Space for your equipment can be reserved by contacting us.

The Prisma is a shared resource and workhorse for both UAB Medicine and UAB-affiliated investigators. Refer to our Policies and Procedures page for Prisma availability.

CINL Equipment

The centerpiece of the UAB Civitan International Neuroimaging Laboratory (CINL) is a Siemens MAGNETOM 3-Tesla Prisma whole body MRI scanner.

• Designed to withstand high-duty cycle sequences and to operate at maximum performance during prolonged experiments.
• Based on a super-homogeneous 3T magnet.
• Performance gradients: 80 mT/m, 200 T/m/s.
• 3rd-order shims.
• Advanced parallel transmit technology for 3D localized excitation (ZOOMit).

The CINL is equipped with a full suite of MR-compatible stimulus delivery and response devices for functional experiments.

• A 32-inch BOLDscreen++ from Cambridge Research Systems can deliver visual stimuli. Placed behind the bore of the magnet, the BOLDscreen is visible through a mirror oriented above the supine participant’s eyes.
• An Eyelink 1000 MR-compatible infrared eye tracker from SR Research can monitor a participant’s eye movements using the same infrared reflective mirror.
• Etymotics MR-compatible ER-30 sound isolating insert earphones can present auditory stimuli that are easily discriminated from MRI scanner noise.
•  Current Designs fORP interface and response devices:
  • 932 fiber optic interface
  • 2-button fiber optic response pad
  • 4-button in-line fiber optic response pad
  • Trackball 2 fiber optic response pad