Comparing neural response to painful electrical stimulation with functional MRI at 3 and 7 T

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2013-11, Vol.82, p.336-343
• Main Authors: HAHN, Andreas, KRANZ, Georg S, WINDISCHBERGER, Christian, LAMM, Claus, LANZENBERGER, Rupert, SEIDEL, Eva-Maria, SLADKY, Ronald, KRAUS, Christoph, KÜBLBÖCK, Martin, PFABIGAN, Daniela M, HUMMER, Allan, GRAHL, Arvina, GANGER, Sebastian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - physiopathology; Brain Mapping - methods; Electric Stimulation; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Pain - physiopathology; Pain Threshold - physiology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.06.010

Progressing from 3T to 7 T functional MRI enables marked improvements of human brain imaging in vivo. Although direct comparisons demonstrated advantages concerning blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal response and spatial specificity, these mostly focused on single brain regions with rather simple tasks. Considering that physiological noise also increases with higher field strength, it is not entirely clear whether the advantages of 7T translate equally to the entire brain during tasks which elicit more complex neuronal processing. Therefore, we investigated the difference between 3T and 7 T in response to transcutaneous electrical painful and non-painful stimulation in 22 healthy subjects. For painful stimuli vs. baseline, stronger activations were observed at 7 T in several brain regions including the insula and supplementary motor area, but not the secondary somatosensory cortex (p