Quantitation of regional cerebral blood flow increases during motor activation: A multislice, steady-state, arterial spin tagging study

• Published in: Magnetic resonance in medicine 1999-08, Vol.42 (2), p.404-407
• Main Authors: Ye, Frank Q., Yang, Yihong, Duyn, Jeff, Mattay, Venkata S., Frank, Joseph A., Weinberger, Daniel R., McLaughlin, Alan C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Cerebral Arteries - physiology; cerebral blood flow; Cerebrovascular Circulation - physiology; finger tapping; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Medical sciences; Motor Cortex - anatomy & histology; Motor Cortex - blood supply; multislice; Osteoarticular system. Muscles; primary sensorimotor cortex; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Radiodiagnosis. Nmr imagery. Nmr spectrometry; Somatosensory Cortex - anatomy & histology; Somatosensory Cortex - blood supply; Spin Labels; spin tagging
• ISSN: 0740-3194; 1522-2594
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1522-2594(199908)42:2<404::AID-MRM23>3.0.CO;2-0

Steady‐state arterial spin tagging approaches were used to construct multislice images of relative cerebral blood flow changes during finger‐tapping tasks. Statistically significant increases in cerebral blood flow were observed in primary sensorimotor cortex in all seven subjects. The mean volume of the activated region in the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex was 0.9 cm3, and the mean increase in cerebral blood flow in the activated area was 54% ± 11%. Although the extended spatial coverage is advantageous for activation studies, the intrinsic sensitivity of the multislice approach is smaller than the intrinsic sensitivity of the single‐slice, arterial spin tagging approach. Magn Reson Med 42:404–407, 1999. Published 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.