Dr Tomoki Arichi is a MRC Senior Clinical Fellow and Professor of Perinatal Neuroscience, King's College London. He is the Head of the Research Department of Early Life Imaging and also a group head in the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

He received his PhD from Imperial College London in 2012, following the award of a Chain-Florey Fellowship from the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre. The work of his thesis focused on the optimisation of functional MRI techniques for studying activity in the newborn brain. He was appointed as a MRC Clinician Scientist in 2017, a MRC transition fellow in 2021, and a MRC Senior Clinical Fellow in 2024.

Dr Arichi also holds an honorary position as a Consultant in Paediatric Neurodisability in the Evelina London Children's Hospital. His clinical work is focused on the early identification and resulting management of the disabilities associated with perinatal brain injury.

His current work aims to apply non-invasive imaging techniques (EEG, functional MRI and simultaneous EEG-fMRI) to characterise the development of functional activity in the human brain, during fetal and preterm life and following brain injury. He is also aiming to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying biophysics of the fMRI signal in the newborn brain. He also holds a visiting position in the Human Robotics group at Imperial College London, where they are developing novel tools for use in the MRI scanner and automated rehabilitative strategies for young infants who have suffered brain injury.  

Figure (above): Robotic tools (shown attached to the wrist (a) and ankle (b)) can be used to provide a fully automated, highly reproducible, and safe pattern of stimulation to neonates inside the MRI scanner. This allows mapping of functional brain areas (c), which can be combined with structural information such as that derived from diffusion tractography (d). 

Key Collaborators:

• Professor A David Edwards (Centre for the Developing Brain, King's College London)
• Professor Jo Hajnal (Imaging Physics, King's College London)
• Professor Etienne Burdet (Human Robotics Group, Imperial College London)
• Dr Lorenzo Fabrizi (Neuro, Physiology & Pharmacology, UCL)
• Professor William Fifer (Developmental Psychobiology, Columbia University)

For more information on Dr Arichi's work please visit the group website: http://www.perinatal-functional-imaging.co.uk/

Functional activation maps from the fMRI studies with preterm infants are available for download from: http://brain-development.org/activation-maps/ 

Follow the Perinatal Functional Imaging Group on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kings_PFIG