Article
Neurosciences
Alessandra Pizzuti, Laurentius (Renzo) Huber, Omer Faruk Gulban, Amaia Benitez-Andonegui, Judith Peters, Rainer Goebel
Summary: Researchers have used ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the microscopic features of direction-selective neurons in the motion sensitive area of the human brain. They have found that blood volume-sensitive fMRI can be used to detect the columnar organization of this brain area at a larger scale. This study provides new insights and possibilities for understanding the mesoscopic functional organization of the human brain.
Article
Neurosciences
Atena Akbari, Saskia Bollmann, Tonima S. Ali, Markus Barth
Summary: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast is a widely used noninvasive method for studying human brain function. However, spatial signal specificity in depth-dependent fMRI can be degraded due to signal leakage. VAscular-Space-Occupancy (VASO) contrast, which measures cerebral blood volume, has shown higher spatial specificity compared to BOLD. In this study, a cortical vascular model was used to predict layer-specific BOLD and VASO responses in the human primary visual cortex, and the model's predictions were compared with experimental results. The results confirmed that VASO is less affected by large vessel effects compared to BOLD.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2023)
Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Jacco A. de Zwart, Peter van Gelderen, Jeff H. Duyn
Summary: The study investigated the practical resolution limits of perfusion-weighted fMRI in human visual stimulation experiments. Results showed that at high resolution, perfusion-weighted fMRI had lower sensitivity than BOLD, potentially compromising the detection of visual activation.
MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Laurentius (Renzo) Huber, Benedikt A. Poser, Amanda L. Kaas, Elizabeth J. Fear, Sebastian Dresbach, Jason Berwick, Rainer Goebel, Robert Turner, Aneurin J. Kennerley
Summary: The study validates the signal source of layer-dependent VASO fMRI using a rat model, showing high reliability in estimating layer-specific CBV changes. This validation study increases the neuronal interpretability of human layer-dependent VASO fMRI in neuroscience application studies.
Article
Neurosciences
Icaro A. F. Oliveira, Yuxuan Cai, Shir Hofstetter, Jeroen C. W. Siero, Wietske van der Zwaag, Serge O. Dumoulin
Summary: Vascular Space Occupancy (VASO) is an fMRI approach based on changes in Cerebral Blood Volume (CBV) that provides higher spatial specificity than the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) method. Comparing VASO-CBV and BOLD measurements, this study found that both methods showed similar pRF mapping estimates, but VASO-CBV had lower tSNR and variance explained. These results suggest that the vascular component of pRF size does not dominate in either VASO-CBV or BOLD.
Review
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Tomohisa Okada, Koji Fujimoto, Yasutaka Fushimi, Thai Akasaka, Dinh H. D. Thuy, Atsushi Shima, Nobukatsu Sawamoto, Naoya Oishi, Zhilin Zhang, Takeshi Funaki, Yuji Nakamoto, Toshiya Murai, Susumu Miyamoto, Ryosuke Takahashi, Tadashi Isa
Summary: Neuroimaging using the 7-Tesla human magnetic resonance system has gained popularity for its high signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratios, providing high-resolution acquisitions and better contrast for detecting brain disorders. It allows for the measurement of a greater number of neurochemicals and visualization of small structures that are difficult to observe at lower magnetic field strengths.
QUANTITATIVE IMAGING IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY
(2022)
Letter
Clinical Neurology
Huimin Chen, Yilong Wang
Summary: The study found that microbleeds in the cortex are closely related to veins, posing a challenge in distinguishing between vessels and microbleeds. A small number of individuals in the healthy control group may have had vascular structures misjudged as microbleeds in the brain.
Article
Neurosciences
Yuka Donoshita, Uk-Su Choi, Hiroshi Ban, Ikuhiro Kida
Summary: Olfaction could be an early marker of neurodegenerative diseases. This study used 7-Tesla fMRI to assess olfactory function in the human brain and found that the piriform cortex is mainly associated with subjective odor intensity, while the posterior orbitofrontal cortex is involved in discriminating the subjective hedonic tone of the odorant.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
David A. Feinberg, Alexander J. S. Beckett, An T. Vu, Jason Stockmann, Laurentius Huber, Samantha Ma, Sinyeob Ahn, Kawin Setsompop, Xiaozhi Cao, Suhyung Park, Chunlei Liu, Lawrence L. Wald, Jonathan R. Polimeni, Azma Mareyam, Bernhard Gruber, Ruediger Stirnberg, Congyu Liao, Essa Yacoub, Mathias Davids, Paul Bell, Elmar Rummert, Michael Koehler, Andreas Potthast, Ignacio Gonzalez-Insua, Stefan Stocker, Shajan Gunamony, Peter Dietz
Summary: To increase granularity in human neuroimaging science, a next-generation 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging scanner was designed and built. It implemented several hardware advancements to improve spatial resolution, image signal-to-noise ratio, and reduce acquisition time.
Article
Clinical Neurology
icaro A. F. de Oliveira, Jeroen C. W. Siero, Serge O. Dumoulin, Wietske van der Zwaag
Summary: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at ultra-high field (UHF, >= 7 T) offers advantages in contrast-to-noise ratio and temporal signal-to-noise ratio compared to conventional field strengths (3 T). Vascular space occupancy (VASO-CBV) imaging shows potential for greater spatial specificity than BOLD imaging. In this study, VASO-CBV responses demonstrated less overlap in fine-scale digit representation maps and higher selectivity measures compared to BOLD, confirming its higher spatial specificity.
Article
Neurosciences
Huan Wang, Xiaoxiao Wang, Yanming Wang, Du Zhang, Yan Yang, Yifeng Zhou, Benshen Qiu, Peng Zhang
Summary: There is increasing evidence that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can detect blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the white matter (WM). However, the functional relevance and significance of WM BOLD signals are still controversial. In this study, 7T BOLD fMRI was used to investigate the fine-scale functional organizations of visual WM bundles, revealing clear contralateral retinotopic organizations and over-representations of the central visual field.
Review
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Tanja Platt, Mark E. Ladd, Daniel Paech
Summary: Ultrahigh magnetic fields, referred to as UHFs with B-0 >= 7T, offer higher signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratios. While they provide advantages in resolving structures and visualizing physiological/pathophysiological effects, challenges such as inhomogeneities and higher energy deposition in the human body exist. This review discusses the advantages, challenges, and promising clinical applications of UHF.
INVESTIGATIVE RADIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Cezary Grochowski, Kamil Jonak, Marcin Maciejewski, Andrzej Stepniewski, Mansur Rahnama-Hezavah
Summary: This study aimed to assess the volumetry of the hippocampus in blind patients with LHON. Using high-field MRI technology, the study found significant differences in various parts of the right hippocampus in LHON patients compared to healthy controls. The findings confirmed previous reports and suggested the potential of ultra-high-field MRI as a diagnostic tool for evaluating LHON disease progression.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Valentina Perosa, Johanna Rotta, Renat Yakupov, Hugo J. J. Kuijf, Frank Schreiber, Jan T. T. Oltmer, Hendrik Mattern, Hans-Jochen Heinze, Emrah Duezel, Stefanie Schreiber
Summary: This study explored the implications of using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) at submillimeter resolution for detecting cerebral microbleeds (MBs) in patients with cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). The results showed that QSM can improve the detection of MBs and revealed a higher prevalence of MBs in healthy elderly individuals than previously known.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Tales Santini, Sossena Wood, Narayanan Krishnamurthy, Tiago Martins, Howard J. Aizenstein, Tamer S. Ibrahim
Summary: The 7 Tesla MRI technology offers high resolution and contrast in human images, but faces challenges due to its high operational frequency causing image inhomogeneities and increased power deposition in tissues. Optimization of the Tic Tac Toe RF head coil design has been successful in producing homogeneous magnetic field distributions at low levels of power deposition, validated through electromagnetic simulations and in-vivo testing.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Anesthesiology
Abraham B. Beckers, Lukas van Oudenhove, Zsa Zsa R. M. Weerts, Heidi I. L. Jacobs, Nikos Priovoulos, Benedikt A. Poser, Dimo Ivanov, Ali Gholamrezaei, Qasim Aziz, Sigrid Elsenbruch, Ad A. M. Masclee, Daniel Keszthelyi
Summary: The study found that subjects with abdominal pain had more pronounced brain activation during infusion, while activation at the NTS level was independent of subjective pain ratings. These findings contribute to understanding the fundamental mechanism necessary for developing novel therapies aimed at correcting disturbances in visceral afferent pain processing.
Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Boris Eberhardt, Benedikt A. Poser, N. Jon Shah, Joerg Felder
Summary: Spoke trajectory parallel transmit (pTX) excitation can mitigate B+1 inhomogeneities in ultra-high field MRI. This study proposes an intermediate method that combines a subset of acquired field maps with generative machine learning models to reduce pulse calibration time and provide more tailored excitation. Image-to-image translation and semantic image synthesis machine learning models based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) are used to deduce missing field maps, and a predictive machine learning model is employed for non-linear pulse design. Simulation results demonstrate comparable excitation homogeneity to state-of-the-art pulse design methods with halved calibration time when using a subset of calibration data and synthesized B+1 maps.
ZEITSCHRIFT FUR MEDIZINISCHE PHYSIK
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Anneke Alkemade, Pierre-Louis Bazin, Rawien Balesar, Kerrin Pine, Evgeniya Kirilina, Harald E. Moeller, Robert Trampel, Johan M. Kros, Max C. Keuken, Ronald L. A. W. Bleys, Dick F. Swaab, Andreas Herrler, Nikolaus Weiskopf, Birte U. Forstmann
Summary: This study presents the first three-dimensional maps of the cyto- and fiber architecture of the human brain, integrating histology, immunohistochemistry, and 7-T quantitative MRI. These maps provide a unique resource for studying the cell and fiber architecture of the brain, as well as for detailed anatomical atlasing and modeling of the microscopic basis of MRI contrasts.
Article
Neurosciences
Zahra Fazal, Daniel E. P. Gomez, Alberto Llera, Jose P. R. F. Marques, Thomas Beck, Benedikt A. Poser, David G. Norris
Summary: A comparison was made between a multiband echo-planar imaging (MBEPI) sequence and a multiband multiecho (MBME) EPI protocol to investigate differences in sensitivity for task fMRI. The results showed that MBME exhibited higher sensitivity than MBEPI in motor, subcortical, and medial frontal cortices at the group level.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2023)
Editorial Material
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Harald E. Moeller
Summary: Long-lasting activities with high demand in cognitive control result in cognitive fatigue, and the reason for control cost inflation is the necessity of recycling potentially toxic substances, specifically glutamate, which can accumulate extracellularly.
JOURNAL OF CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW AND METABOLISM
(2023)
Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Zhifeng Chen, Congyu Liao, Xiaozhi Cao, Benedikt A. Poser, Zhongbiao Xu, Wei-Ching Lo, Manyi Wen, Jaejin Cho, Qiyuan Tian, Yaohui Wang, Yanqiu Feng, Ling Xia, Wufan Chen, Feng Liu, Berkin Bilgic
Summary: This study aims to develop a new distortion-free 3D-EPI acquisition and image reconstruction technique for fast and robust, high-resolution, whole-brain imaging as well as quantitative T-2(& lowast;) mapping. The proposed technique enables rapid 3D distortion-free high-resolution imaging and T(2)(& lowast;)mapping.
MAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Omer Faruk Gulban, Saskia Bollmann, Laurentius (Renzo) Huber, Konrad Wagstyl, Rainer Goebel, Benedikt A. Poser, Kendrick Kay, Dimo Ivanov
Summary: This study provides a dataset of measured T 2* values in the living human brain using 7 Tesla MRI at a mesoscopic scale. The dataset includes visualizations that reveal fine-scale cortical substructures and demonstrates consistent T * 2 values across subjects. This dataset is important for anatomical investigations of the human brain and improving our understanding of the T 2*-weighted (f)MRI signal.
Article
Neurosciences
Alessandra Pizzuti, Laurentius (Renzo) Huber, Omer Faruk Gulban, Amaia Benitez-Andonegui, Judith Peters, Rainer Goebel
Summary: Researchers have used ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the microscopic features of direction-selective neurons in the motion sensitive area of the human brain. They have found that blood volume-sensitive fMRI can be used to detect the columnar organization of this brain area at a larger scale. This study provides new insights and possibilities for understanding the mesoscopic functional organization of the human brain.
Article
Neurosciences
Nikos Priovoulos, Icaro Agenor Ferreira de Oliveira, Benedikt A. Poser, David G. Norris, Wietske van Der Zwaag
Summary: Researchers have developed a modified BOLD fMRI technique called Arterial Blood Contrast, which selectively reduces venous and tissue signal and increases cerebral blood volume weighting. This technique can modulate spatial specificity and eliminate pial-surface bias, making it valuable for in-vivo neuroscience research.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Henrik Marschner, Andre Pampel, Roland Mueller, Katja Reimann, Nicolas Bock, Markus Morawski, Stefan Geyer, Harald E. Moeller
Summary: Cell membranes and macromolecules/paramagnetic compounds interact with water proton spins, providing MRI contrast and tissue composition information. Quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) parameters were measured at high spatial resolution in a fixed marmoset brain slice and compared to histology results. R1obs and R2* were linearly correlated with iron content, while distinct differences were observed between gray and white matter for qMT parameters and relaxometry. These findings suggest that the water interacting macromolecular pool consists of myelin and non-myelin contributions, and R1obs and R2* are more sensitive for depicting microstructural differences between cortical layers than T.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Lonike K. Faes, Federico De Martino, Laurentius (Renzo) Huber
Summary: The development of ultra high field fMRI signal readout strategies has made it possible to image the human brain in vivo and non-invasively at higher spatial resolutions. The vascular space occupancy (VASO) sequence is a popular method for detecting laminar microvasculature changes with minimal interference. However, VASO has not been applied to the technically challenging auditory cortex. In this study, we describe the challenges encountered and the solutions adopted in developing a VASO protocol for auditory neuroscientific applications, providing preliminary results of laminar responses to sounds and tonotopy mapping in the auditory cortex as proof of concept for future investigations.
Editorial Material
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Harald E. Moeller
JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
(2023)
Review
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Dimo Ivanov, Federico De Martino, Elia Formisano, Francisco J. Fritz, Rainer Goebel, Laurentius Huber, Sriranga Kashyap, Valentin G. Kemper, Denizhan Kurban, Alard Roebroeck, Shubharthi Sengupta, Bettina Sorger, Desmond H. Y. Tse, Kamil Uludag, Christopher J. Wiggins, Benedikt A. Poser
Summary: This article reviews the 9.4 T work done in Maastricht, including functional and anatomical imaging experiments. By utilizing specific techniques and optimized coils, the researchers were able to obtain high-quality imaging results and highlight the technical challenges and practical issues associated with ultra-high field MRI.
MAGNETIC RESONANCE MATERIALS IN PHYSICS BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
(2023)
