SPIE Launches Neurophotonics

The newest SPIE journal, Neurophotonics, will focus on novel optical technologies for imaging and manipulation of brain structure and function.

Research in this area is driving profound advances in understanding brain phenomena such as electrical excitability, neuroglial physiology, neurovascular signaling, metabolic activity, and hemodynamics in health and disease.

And it comes at a time when agencies in the US, Europe, and other areas prepare to invest significant sums into researching and understanding the human brain.

In the US, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative aims to map the activity of every neuron in the human brain, while the European Commission’s “human brain initiative” has been selected as a flagship research theme for the next decade.

“As advanced optical methods are driving a revolution in the neurosciences that will persist for decades to come, I am delighted that SPIE is starting Neurophotonics,” said editor-in-chief David Boas of Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. “The journal will provide a highly visible focal point to facilitate and accelerate the rapidly expanding impact of this discipline.”

Boas, an SPIE member who will discuss functional brain imaging in February at the BiOS Hot Topics event, part of SPIE Photonics West, said a key goal of Neurophotonics will be to foster greater awareness and interaction among the photonics, neuroscience, and clinical communities.

Neurophotonics will be published quarterly both in print and online in the SPIE Digital Library, with each article published online immediately on completion. Articles will be freely available through 2015.

“Photonics is having an incredibly important impact in medicine and health care,” said William Arnold, the 2013 SPIE President. “SPIE is pleased to focus even more attention on this exciting field with new conference programs on neurophotonics and optogenetics and now a dedicated neurophotonics journal.”

The SPIE Journal of Biomedical Optics has included papers covering neurophotonics since 1996. Its editor-in-chief, SPIE Fellow Lihong Wang of Washington University in St. Louis, said that the rapid growth and interest in this field has created a distinct need for a spin-off journal focused solely on the application of photonics technology and techniques in brain research.

“I view Neurophotonics as a companion journal and applaud SPIE’s commitment to the biomedical community,” Wang said. “I also expect this new journal to serve as an interdisciplinary platform for both optical engineers and neuroscientists.”

Neurophotonics is one of three new journals SPIE is launching in 2014.

The Journal of Medical Imaging (JMI) is edited by SPIE member Maryellen Giger, A.N. Pritzker Professor of Radiology/Medical Physics at the University of  Chicago (USA), and will initially mirror that of the annual SPIE Medical Imaging symposium.

Topics will include imaging physics, tomographic reconstruction algorithms (such as those in CT and MRI), image processing, computer-aided diagnosis, visualization and modeling, image perception and observer performance, technology assessment, ultrasonic imaging, image-guided procedures, and digital pathology.

"The new journal gives the field of medical imaging, which continues to be more and more interdisciplinary, a home for scientific presentation, discussion, review and archiving," Giger said.

The Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems (JATIS) will be edited by SPIE member Mark Clampin of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

JATIS responds to the need expressed by the astronomical instrumentation community for a high-quality, peer-reviewed journal focusing on the technologies and techniques covered in the astronomy programs at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation and SPIE Optics + Photonics, Clampin said.

JMI and JATIS will be published quarterly in print as well as online in the SPIE Digital Library. Individual papers will be published online as soon as each is ready.

Free access to the online versions of Neurophotonics, the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, and the Journal of Medical Imaging will be available through the end of 2015.

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