scholarly journals Validating Linear Systems Analysis for Laminar fMRI: Temporal Additivity for Stimulus Duration Manipulations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelle A. van Dijk ◽  
Alessio Fracasso ◽  
Natalia Petridou ◽  
Serge O. Dumoulin

AbstractAdvancements in ultra-high field (7 T and higher) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners have made it possible to investigate both the structure and function of the human brain at a sub-millimeter scale. As neuronal feedforward and feedback information arrives in different layers, sub-millimeter functional MRI has the potential to uncover information processing between cortical micro-circuits across cortical depth, i.e. laminar fMRI. For nearly all conventional fMRI analyses, the main assumption is that the relationship between local neuronal activity and the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal adheres to the principles of linear systems theory. For laminar fMRI, however, directional blood pooling across cortical depth stemming from the anatomy of the cortical vasculature, potentially violates these linear system assumptions, thereby complicating analysis and interpretation. Here we assess whether the temporal additivity requirement of linear systems theory holds for laminar fMRI. We measured responses elicited by viewing stimuli presented for different durations and evaluated how well the responses to shorter durations predicted those elicited by longer durations. We find that BOLD response predictions are consistently good predictors for observed responses, across all cortical depths, and in all measured visual field maps (V1, V2, and V3). Our results suggest that the temporal additivity assumption for linear systems theory holds for laminar fMRI. We thus show that the temporal additivity assumption holds across cortical depth for sub-millimeter gradient-echo BOLD fMRI in early visual cortex.

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 1391-1403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qidong Wang ◽  
Chuangen Guo ◽  
Lan Zhang ◽  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Zhaoming Wang ◽  
...  

Objective To investigate changes in renal oxygenation levels by blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD)-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and to evaluate BOLD-MRI for detecting early diabetic renal injury. Methods Seventy-five rats, with unilateral nephrectomy, were randomly divided into streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus (DM, n = 65) and normal control (NC, n = 10) groups. BOLD-MRI scans were performed at baseline (both groups) and at 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63 and 70 days (DM only). Renal cortical (C) and medullary (M) R2* signals were measured and R2* medulla/cortex ratio (MCR) was calculated. Results DM-group CR2* and MR2* values were significantly higher than NC values following diabetes induction. R2* values increased gradually and peaked at day 35 (CR2*, 33.95 ± 0.34 s–1; MR2*, 43.79 ± 1.46 s–1), then dropped gradually (CR2*, 33.17 ± 0.69 s–1; MR2*, 41.61 ± 0.95 s–1 at day 70). DM-group MCR rose gradually from 1.12 to 1.32 at day 42, then decreased to 1.25 by day 70. Conclusions BOLD-MRI can be used to non-invasively evaluate renal hypoxia and early diabetic renal injury in diabetic rats. MCR may be adopted to reflect dynamic changes in renal hypoxia.


2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barış Yeşilyurt ◽  
Kevin Whittingstall ◽  
Kâmil Uğurbil ◽  
Nikos K Logothetis ◽  
Kâmil Uludağ

There is currently a great interest to combine electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain function. Earlier studies have shown different EEG components to correlate well with the fMRI signal arguing for a complex relationship between both measurements. In this study, using separate EEG and fMRI measurements, we show that (1) 0.1 ms visual stimulation evokes detectable hemodynamic and visual-evoked potential (VEP) responses, (2) the negative VEP deflection at ∼80 ms (N2) co-varies with stimulus duration/intensity such as with blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response; the positive deflection at ∼120 ms (P2) does not, and (3) although the N2 VEP–BOLD relationship is approximately linear, deviation is evident at the limit of zero N2 VEP. The latter finding argues that, although EEG and fMRI measurements can co-vary, they reflect partially independent processes in the brain tissue. Finally, it is shown that the stimulus-induced impulse response function (IRF) at 0.1 ms and the intrinsic IRF during rest have different temporal dynamics, possibly due to predominance of neuromodulation during rest as compared with neurotransmission during stimulation. These results extend earlier findings regarding VEP–BOLD coupling and highlight the component- and context-dependency of the relationship between evoked potentials and hemodynamic responses.


2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 491-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Martuzzi ◽  
Micah M. Murray ◽  
Reto A. Meuli ◽  
Jean-Philippe Thiran ◽  
Philippe P. Maeder ◽  
...  

The relationship between electrophysiological and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals remains poorly understood. To date, studies have required invasive methods and have been limited to single functional regions and thus cannot account for possible variations across brain regions. Here we present a method that uses fMRI data and singe-trial electroencephalography (EEG) analyses to assess the spatial and spectral dependencies between the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) responses and the noninvasively estimated local field potentials (eLFPs) over a wide range of frequencies (0–256 Hz) throughout the entire brain volume. This method was applied in a study where human subjects completed separate fMRI and EEG sessions while performing a passive visual task. Intracranial LFPs were estimated from the scalp-recorded data using the ELECTRA source model. We compared statistical images from BOLD signals with statistical images of each frequency of the eLFPs. In agreement with previous studies in animals, we found a significant correspondence between LFP and BOLD statistical images in the gamma band (44–78 Hz) within primary visual cortices. In addition, significant correspondence was observed at low frequencies (<14 Hz) and also at very high frequencies (>100 Hz). Effects within extrastriate visual areas showed a different correspondence that not only included those frequency ranges observed in primary cortices but also additional frequencies. Results therefore suggest that the relationship between electrophysiological and hemodynamic signals thus might vary both as a function of frequency and anatomical region.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata F. Leoni ◽  
Kelley C. Mazzetto-Betti ◽  
Afonso C. Silva ◽  
Antonio C. dos Santos ◽  
Draulio B. de Araujo ◽  
...  

Impaired cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), a predictive factor of imminent stroke, has been shown to be associated with carotid steno-occlusive disease. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, such as blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) and arterial spin labeling (ASL), have emerged as promising noninvasive tools to evaluate altered CVR with whole-brain coverage, when combined with a vasoactive stimulus, such as respiratory task or injection of acetazolamide. Under normal cerebrovascular conditions, CVR has been shown to be globally and homogenously distributed between hemispheres, but with differences among cerebral regions. Such differences can be explained by anatomical specificities and different biochemical mechanisms responsible for vascular regulation. In patients with carotid steno-occlusive disease, studies have shown that MRI techniques can detect impaired CVR in brain tissue supplied by the affected artery. Moreover, resulting CVR estimations have been well correlated to those obtained with more established techniques, indicating that BOLD and ASL are robust and reliable methods to assess CVR in patients with cerebrovascular diseases. Therefore, the present paper aims to review recent studies which use BOLD and ASL to evaluate CVR, in healthy individuals and in patients with carotid steno-occlusive disease, providing a source of information regarding the obtained results and the methodological difficulties.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Guo ◽  
Fugen Zhou ◽  
Muwei Li ◽  
John C Gore ◽  
Zhaohua Ding

Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals in white matter (WM) have usually been ignored or undetected, consistent with the lower vascular density and metabolic demands in WM than in gray matter (GM). Despite converging evidence demonstrating the reliable detection of BOLD signals in WM evoked by neural stimulation and in a resting state, few studies have examined the relationship between BOLD functional signals and tissue metabolism in WM. By analyzing simultaneous recordings of MRI and PET data, we found that the correlations between low frequency resting state BOLD signals in WM are spatially correlated with local glucose uptake, which also covaried with the amplitude of spontaneous low frequency fluctuations in BOLD signals. These results provide further evidence that BOLD signals in WM reflect variations in metabolic demand associated with neural activity, and suggest they should be incorporated into more complete models of brain function.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e0117531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley D. Harris ◽  
Nicolaas A. J. Puts ◽  
Brian A. Anderson ◽  
Steven Yantis ◽  
James J. Pekar ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (12) ◽  
pp. 1857-1863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A Germuska ◽  
James A Meakin ◽  
Daniel P Bulte

Vessel size imaging (VSI) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that aims to provide quantitative measurements of tissue microvasculature. An emerging variation of this technique uses the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) effect as the source of the imaging contrast. Gas challenges have the advantage over contrast injection techniques in that they are noninvasive and easily repeatable because of the fast washout of the contrast. However, initial results from BOLD-VSI studies are somewhat contradictory, with substantially different estimates of the mean vessel radius. Owing to BOLD-VSI being an emerging technique, there is not yet a standard processing methodology, and different techniques have been used to calculate the mean vessel radius and reject uncertain estimates. In addition, the acquisition methodology and signal modeling vary from group to group. Owing to these differences, it is difficult to determine the source of this variation. Here we use computer modeling to assess the impact of noise on the accuracy and precision of different BOLD-VSI calculations. Our results show both potential overestimates and underestimates of the mean vessel radius, which is confirmed with a validation study at 3T.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 1819-1826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniil P Aksenov ◽  
Limin Li ◽  
Michael J Miller ◽  
Gheorghe Iordanescu ◽  
Alice M Wyrwicz

Most functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) animal studies rely on anesthesia, which can induce a variety of drug-dependent physiological changes, including depression of neuronal activity and cerebral metabolism as well as direct effects on the vasculature. The goal of this study was to characterize the effects of anesthesia on the BOLD signal and neuronal activity. Simultaneous fMRI and electrophysiology were used to measure changes in single units (SU), multi-unit activity (MUA), local field potentials (LFP), and the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response in the somatosensory cortex during whisker stimulation of rabbits before, during and after anesthesia with fentanyl or isoflurane. Our results indicate that anesthesia modulates the BOLD signal as well as both baseline and stimulus-evoked neuronal activity, and, most significantly, that the relationship between the BOLD and electrophysiological signals depends on the type of anesthetic. Specifically, the behavior of LFP observed under isoflurane did not parallel the behavior of BOLD, SU, or MUA. These findings suggest that the relationship between these signals may not be straightforward. BOLD may scale more closely with the best measure of the excitatory subcomponents of the underlying neuronal activity, which may vary according to experimental conditions that alter the excitatory/inhibitory balance in the cortex.


2018 ◽  
Vol 89 (18) ◽  
pp. 3768-3778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qicai Wang ◽  
Yuan Tao ◽  
Zhongwei Zhang ◽  
Jie Yuan ◽  
Zuowei Ding ◽  
...  

Fabric hand is most frequently used by consumers and researchers to evaluate the touch feeling of textiles. Academically, many methods have been developed to characterize it psychologically and physically, and the relationship between the hand attributes of fabrics and their physical properties are well understood. However, in physiological terms, the cognitive mechanism of the brain on different attributes of fabric hand is not clear. Previous studies have shown that the sensory or discrimination information from fabric touch can be detected by the technology of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this study, further fMRI experiments were carried out, attempting to find the relationship between the cerebral cortices of various brain areas and different hand attributes of fabrics. The subtle atlas of Automated Anatomical Labeling (AAL) was used to display and analyze the blood oxygenation level dependent signals completely and conveniently. The results showed that when the subjects touched two samples with distinct fabric hand in a specified way, activation information and the index of the mean signal in every related brain areas can distinguish them, and several brain regions in the AAL atlas are linked to different fabric hand attributes. The technology of fMRI was proved again to be a promising tool for studying the cognitive mechanism of the brain on fabric touch.


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