Resting-state fMRI using passband balanced steady-state free precession

Resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) has been increasingly used for understanding brain functional architecture. To date, most rsfMRI studies have exploited blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrast using gradient-echo (GE) echo planar imaging (EPI), which can suffer from image distortion a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-03, Vol.9 (3), p.e91075-e91075
Main Authors: Cheng, Joe S, Gao, Patrick P, Zhou, Iris Y, Chan, Russell W, Chan, Queenie, Mak, Henry K, Khong, Pek L, Wu, Ed X
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biology
Brain
Brain - cytology
Brain - physiology
Brain architecture
Brain mapping
Cortex (piriform)
Distortion
Echo surveys
Engineering
Feasibility Studies
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
High resolution
Humans
Hypotheses
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Image resolution
Independent component analysis
Laboratories
Magnetic permeability
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Magnetic susceptibility
Male
Medicine
Nervous system
Neuroimaging
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Oxygenation
Phase transitions
Precession
Prefrontal cortex
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Reproducibility
Reproducibility of Results
Rest - physiology
Signal processing
Steady state
Studies
Substantia grisea
Young Adult
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Summary:Resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) has been increasingly used for understanding brain functional architecture. To date, most rsfMRI studies have exploited blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrast using gradient-echo (GE) echo planar imaging (EPI), which can suffer from image distortion and signal dropout due to magnetic susceptibility and inherent long echo time. In this study, the feasibility of passband balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) imaging for distortion-free and high-resolution rsfMRI was investigated. rsfMRI was performed in humans at 3 T and in rats at 7 T using bSSFP with short repetition time (TR = 4/2.5 ms respectively) in comparison with conventional GE-EPI. Resting-state networks (RSNs) were detected using independent component analysis. RSNs derived from bSSFP images were shown to be spatially and spectrally comparable to those derived from GE-EPI images with considerable intra- and inter-subject reproducibility. High-resolution bSSFP images corresponded well to the anatomical images, with RSNs exquisitely co-localized to the gray matter. Furthermore, RSNs at areas of severe susceptibility such as human anterior prefrontal cortex and rat piriform cortex were proved accessible. These findings demonstrated for the first time that passband bSSFP approach can be a promising alternative to GE-EPI for rsfMRI. It offers distortion-free and high-resolution RSNs and is potentially suited for high field studies.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0091075