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Khaliesah Bolhassan^1,2, Rachael Franklin³, Enrico De Vita⁴, Jozef Jarosz², and Marco Borri^2
1School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Neuroradiology, King's College Hospital, London, United Kingdom, ³MRI Physics, Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, ⁴Radiology Department, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, United Kingdom

Keywords: fMRI (task based), Data Analysis

This work aims to assess the influence of methodological aspects in fMRI language mapping at 1.5T and 3T.  Probability maps from healthy volunteer cohorts were compared to a published reference using a Dice Index vs probability threshold plot.  T-value normalisation to the peak within the classic Broca/Wernicke’s language area as well as the inclusion of additional language tasks increased overlap to the reference. The extent of reproducible activation was larger at 3T.

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Junlin Guo¹, Nazirah Mohd Khairi¹, Lyuan Xu^1,2, and Don Mitchell Wilkes^1
1Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States, ²Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States

Keywords: fMRI (resting state), Brain, Spatiotemporal

The human brain, at rest, is complex and many functional studies focus on the brain patterns around criticality. This work addresses a novel perspective, the avalanche, in resting-state fMRI. In this work, we design two data-driven signal modeling approaches that dynamically measure and visualize the signal entropy from both spatial and temporal aspects. The first approach applies a clustering-based scheme with the Markov chain. The second method utilizes the autoregressive model with a sliding window. The results show a consistent, less complex pattern at the avalanche state, from which the interpretation of the brain can be clearer than at criticality.

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Ratnamanjuri Devi¹, Torsten Schlumm¹, Toralf Mildner¹, and Harald E Möller^1
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany

Keywords: fMRI (task based), Arterial spin labelling, Vascular Space Occupancy

CBF and CBV changes were measured sequentially, in regions of positive and negative BOLD responses, using a multi-echo center-out readout, known to reduce BOLD contaminations in pCASL and VASO measurements due to its short echo times. The CBV-CBF coupling was found to differ between positive and negative BOLD regions. The temporal relation of the CBF and VASO timecourses to their corresponding T₂* timecourses, on the other hand, was found to be almost identical in the two ROIs.  

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Ratnamanjuri Devi¹, Jöran Lepsien¹, Kathrin Lorenz¹, Torsten Schlumm¹, Toralf Mildner¹, and Harald E Möller^1
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany

Keywords: fMRI (task based), Arterial spin labelling

The application of a simplistic model of neuronal control of changes in cerebral blood flow and oxygen metabolism to experimental data in regions of the positive and negative BOLD response, suggested differences in neuronal contributions and inhibitory control of changes in cerebral blood flow between the two regions.

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Kurt G Schilling¹, Muwei Li¹, Francois Rheault², Yurui Gao¹, Leon Y Cai³, Yu Zhao¹, Zhongliang Zu¹, Zhaohua Ding¹, Adam W Anderson³, Bennett A Landman³, and John C Gore^1
1Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, United States, ²Sherbrooke University, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada, ³Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States

Keywords: fMRI, White Matter

Recent studies have revealed that blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) signal changes correlate with task timings throughout a majority of the cortex, challenging the idea of sparse and localized brain functions, and highlighting the pervasiveness of potential false negative fMRI findings. However, these studies have focused on gray matter only. We extend the analysis to white matter and find widespread BOLD signal changes in both white and gray matter, challenging the idea of sparse functional localization, but also the prevailing wisdom of treating white matter BOLD signals as artefacts to be removed. 

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Hsin-Ju Lee^1,2, Emily Rutledge^1,3, Jiahui Veron Cheng^1,4, Lauri Nummenmaa⁵, Severi Santavirta⁵, and Fa-Hsuan Lin^1,2
1Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research institute, Toronto, ON, Canada, ²Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ³University of Waterloo, Ｗaterloo, ON, Canada, ⁴University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ⁵Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

Keywords: fMRI (task based), fMRI (task based), EEG-fMRI

Simultaneously acquired EEG and fMRI data allow for elucidating the neurovascular coupling. Here, we use temporally sparse fast fMRI and continuous EEG to study the correlations between hemodynamic signals and neural oscillations across the cerebral cortex during movie watching.

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Shota Hodono¹, Chia-yin Wu^1,2,3, Carl Dixon¹, Donald Maillet¹, Jin Jin⁴, Jonathan R Polimeni^5,6, and Martijn A Cloos^1
1Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia, ²ARC Training Centre for Innovation in Biomedical Imaging Technology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia, ³chool of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia, ⁴Siemens Healthcare Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Australia, ⁵Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁶Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States

Keywords: fMRI, Velocity & Flow

In this work, we demonstrate the use of PINS pulses to mitigate unwanted inflow effects in 2D multi-slice sequences. A PINS pulse was played prior to slice-selective excitation to saturate the magnetization within all slice gaps. Bloch simulation and flow-phantom experiments show inflow effects can be removed completely. Functional scans using twice-refocused spin echo suggest that inflow effects may have noticeable contributions to SE-BOLD fMRI response. This PINS implementation allows us to further understand fMRI signal dynamics by modulating the inflow effect.

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Linqing Li¹, Yuhui Chai², Andy John Derbyshire¹, and Peter Bandettini^3
1Functional MRI Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, ²Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States, ³Section on Functional Imaging Methods, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, United States

Keywords: fMRI, fMRI (task based), Intravascular fMRI contrast, extravascular fMRI contrast

By using dual-echo DANTE-EPI for functional visual stimulation studies, the contrast of fractions of intravascular signal to total signal change can be generated. We show an intravascular shifted (IVS) contrast can provide simultaneous visualization of intra-extra vascular contrast under different frequencies of visual stimulations at 3T.

Huaguang Yang¹, Weiyin Vivian Liu², Liang Li¹, Zhi Wen¹, Lanhua Hu¹, XiaoGuang Luo³, and Yunfei Zha^1
1Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, ²MR Research, GE Healthcare, Wuhan, China, ³Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of South University of Science and Technology, The Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, Shenzhen People's Hospital, ShenZhen, China

Keywords: fMRI (resting state), Parkinson's Disease

Cerebellum is responsible for posture and gait control. 65.93% of patients with multiple system atrophy experienced FOG. Patients with the damaged cerebellar locomotor region had gait-freezing-like symptoms, suggesting that the cerebellum may be involved in the occurrence and development of FOG symptoms. This study suggested that the cerebellum volume atrophy may be involved in FOG development in MSA patients and subsequently induce functional abnormality in the cerebellum-cerebral circuit. This study provided neuroimaging evidence for clinical understanding of cerebellum role in MSA patients with FOG injury.

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William D. Reeves¹, Ishfaque Ahmed¹, Brooke S. Jackson², Wenwu Sun¹, Michelle L. Brown³, Celestine F. Williams³, Catherine L. Davis³, Jennifer E. McDowell², Nathan E. Yanasak⁴, Shaoyong Su³, and Qun Zhao^1
1Department of Physics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States, ²Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States, ³Georgia Prevention Institute, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology and Imaging, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, United States

Keywords: fMRI (resting state), Hypertension

Using a graph theory approach, functional connectivity differences in a 52 (32 hypertensive, 20 normotensive) subject cohort were tracked using resting-state fMRI. A null generation modification to a difference degree test (DDT) is profiled that resulted in increased true positivity rates in simulations while maintaining nominal false positivity rates. Applying the modified DDT to the hypertension cohort resulted in the discovery of 7 brain regions that exhibit significant groupwise differential expression along with 33 unique differentially expressed connections to other areas in the brain. The results presented agree with previous studies and represent a promising application of the modified DDT.

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Destaw Bayabil Mekbib¹, Miao Cai², Weiying Dai³, Xiaoli Liu⁴, and Li Zhao^1
1Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ²Neurology, Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou, China, ³Computer Science, Binghamton Univeristy, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY, United States, ⁴Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou, China

Keywords: fMRI (resting state), Parkinson's Disease

Resting-state functional MRI has played a fundamental role in the study of Parkinson’s disease (PD) with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD). In this work, we investigated changes in functional connectivity within and between resting-state networks and their relationship to global fluctuations in 13 PD with RBD, 28 PD without RBD, 6 RBD without PD, and 20 healthy controls. Based on an in-house reliable data selection strategy, unique effects on the lateral visual network in RBD patients and on the sensorimotor network in PD patients were found. These may provide novel clues to understanding the pathology and improve diagnosis.

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Genevieve Hayes¹, Joana Pinto¹, Stefano Moia², Martin Craig³, Michael Chappell³, Cesar Caballero-Gaudes², and Daniel P Bulte^1
1Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ²Basque Centre on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain, ³Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Keywords: fMRI, Blood vessels, Cerebrovascular reactivity

Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), the ability of  blood vessels to dilate and constrict in response to a vasoactive stimulus, is an important indicator of cerebrovascular health and can be estimated using BOLD functional MRI. In this work, we evaluated a novel variational Bayesian method for mapping CVR dynamics which yielded similar CVR results and reproducibility to a time-shifted, “lagged” general linear model approach, and uncovered the need for more research into negative CVR. This novel approach is more time efficient and has the potential to improve CVR mapping by incorporating non-linear modelling and physiologically meaningful information (in the form of priors).

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Catarina Domingos¹, Inês Esteves¹, Ana R. Fouto¹, Amparo Ruiz-Tagle¹, Gina Caetano¹, and Patrícia Figueiredo^1
1Institute for Systems and Robotics - Lisboa and Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Keywords: fMRI, fMRI

We investigate the best modeling approach for mapping cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) using voxelwise lag optimization. We considered two types of regressors (Block, PetCO2), three convolution models (no convolution, single gamma, double gamma), and a variable haemodynamic delay. We found that the CVR values obtained when using the PetCO2 signal without convolution, or convolved with a single gamma, are better than those obtained with the canonical HRF (double gamma, time-to-peak = 6s), while convolution with a canonical HRF remains the best option when using a Block design.

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Beini Hu¹, Lori Donaldson¹, Parimal Joshi¹, Lincoln Kartchner¹, Sara Akar¹, and Peiying Liu^1
1Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, United States

Keywords: fMRI, Neuro

Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is typically measured using a carbon dioxide (CO2) stimulus combined with BOLD fMRI. However, this requires considerable subject cooperation. Although resting-state BOLD fMRI has shown its potential to generate CVR maps, the CVR results could be unreliable due to little fluctuation in some subjects’ spontaneous breathing. A new method utilizing intermittent breath modulation requires no gas-inhalation and presents higher sensitivity than resting-state CVR mapping. In this study, we investigated the effect of temporal resolution on CVR mapping obtained from breath modulation BOLD data. Our results showed that good CVR quality can be achieved with TR of 0.72s.

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Yimei Cao¹, Hongli Fan¹, Cuimei Xu¹, and Hanzhang Lu^1
1Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States

Keywords: fMRI, fMRI

Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is an indicator of cerebrovascular reserve and provides important information about vascular health in a range of brain conditions and diseases. However, current CVR maps often have artifactual bright spots in arterial/venous areas due to the complexity of the BOLD signal mechanism. In this work, we proposed a novel CVR acquisition scheme by adding single-direction or varying-direction crusher gradients to the BOLD sequence. The results demonstrated that these modified sequences could successfully suppress large-vessel artifacts in CVR map.

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Jian Ming Teo^1,2, Jina Lee³, Ping Hou¹, Vinodh A Kumar³, Kyle R Noll⁴, Sujit S Prabhu⁵, and Ho-Ling Liu^1
1Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States, ²The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, United States, ³Department of Neuroradiology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States, ⁴Department of Neuro-Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States, ⁵Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States

Keywords: fMRI, Data Processing

This study aims to develop a functional template of primary language areas based on 306 presurgical language fMRI scans from 102 patients with brain tumors. The template was constructed from voxelwise probabilistic distribution of fMRI results of three common clinical language paradigms. An independent dataset of 38 patients was used to test the template from this study and compare with a template derived from the meta-analysis of 1101 published studies. The results showed that our template agreed better with the test dataset, with significantly higher dice coefficients in both anterior and posterior primary language areas, comparing with the literature-based template.

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Kazuhiro Nakamura¹ and Toshibumi Kinoshita^1
1Research Institute for Brain and Blood Vessels Akita, Akita, Japan

Keywords: fMRI (resting state), fMRI (resting state), spectrum analysis

For the valuation of BOLD fluctuations, we have investigated the slope of the spectrum (SLOPE) to exclude the respiratory and heartrate fluctuation. Functional connectivity (ROI to ROI) was evaluated by Conn v19.b software. The SLOPE was evaluated in the frequency range of 0.01 – 0.1Hz. Maximum connectivity in each ROI correlated well with the value of SLOPE, but the mean connectivity did not. Therefore, it will be possible to evaluate the strength of connectivity of rs-fMRI by evaluating SLOPE.