Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the most likely applications to benefit from high field MRI. It profits from the higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and increased blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrast itself. Nine volunteers were measured at both 1.5 and 7 T using finger tapping with fMRI in a block design fashion. An echoplanar imaging (EPI) sequence with short TE (28 ms at 7 T) was chosen for covering the whole brain. A CP (circular polarization) transmit/receive head coil was used for image acquisition. All cerebral areas involved in finger tapping could be revealed using 7 T: SI, MI, SII, SMA, thalamus, and cerebellar areas. At 1.5 T the activation in the thalamus was only detectable in one subject using the same corrected p-value for all analyses. Furthermore, the BOLD signal change was significantly higher at 7 T than at 1.5 T (factor 2–3). A well-fitted response curve could be detected in all sensory-motor areas at 7 T in whole-brain coverage, even in areas suffering from susceptibility like the cerebellum. Supra- and infratentorial sensory-motor areas are consistently and reliably detectable using whole-brain fMRI at 7 T with good-quality response functions and, as expected, higher signal compared to 1.5 T.
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