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Field Strength Dependence of Contrast and Noise in fMRI

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fMRI: From Nuclear Spins to Brain Functions

Part of the book series: Biological Magnetic Resonance ((BIMR,volume 30))

Abstract

Experiments on human brain function using the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrast mechanism have become a principal tool in neuroscience and have constituted one of the major applications pushing the development of high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology. The benefit of acquiring BOLD functional imaging maps at higher-field strength is often summarized as improved sensitivity (to subtle activation) and improved spatial specificity (to the site of neuronal activation). These benefits derive from a complex combination of physical and biological mechanisms, some of which are well understood and some of which are still being investigated and modeled. While the BOLD contrast mechanism and its dependence on field strength is complex enough to spark debate over the best way to exploit potential benefits, the empirical data amply support these broad claims and have driven the steady increase in the field strength of scanners used for these experiments as well as a continuous investigation of techniques to maximize sensitivity and spatial specificity. In this chapter, we examine the basic scaling of the MR signal and noise with field strength in simple cases as well as in the more complex biological cases where noise is dominated by nuisance fluctuations driven by biological processes (such as blood circulation and respiration). We also examine the more complex topic of the changes in contrast to BOLD imaging with field strength and the changing source of the signal within the vasculature as field strength B 0 is increased.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Jonathan Polimeni for useful discussions on the theory of noise in arrays. We acknowledge support from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) grant P41RR014075, S10RR021110, S10RR023401, S10RR019307, S10RR19254, and S10RR023043. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Research Resources or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA

    Lawrence L. Wald & Christina Triantafyllou

  2. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Lawrence L. Wald & Christina Triantafyllou

  3. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Lawrence L. Wald

  4. McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Christina Triantafyllou

  5. Unité de Neuroimagerie Fonctionnelle, Centre de recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Groupe de Recherche sur le Système Nerveux Central, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Richard D. Hoge

  6. Department of Physiology, Institut de Génie Biomédical, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Richard D. Hoge

Authors
  1. Lawrence L. Wald
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  2. Christina Triantafyllou
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  3. Richard D. Hoge
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lawrence L. Wald .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Kamil Uludag

  2. University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Kamil Ugurbil

  3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Lawrence Berliner

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Wald, L., Triantafyllou, C., Hoge, R. (2015). Field Strength Dependence of Contrast and Noise in fMRI. In: Uludag, K., Ugurbil, K., Berliner, L. (eds) fMRI: From Nuclear Spins to Brain Functions. Biological Magnetic Resonance, vol 30. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7591-1_27

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