Juchem Christoph, Nixon Terence W, McIntyre Scott, Rothman Douglas L, de Graaf Robin A
Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Magnetic Resonance Research Center, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
Magn Reson Med. 2010 Jan;63(1):171-80. doi: 10.1002/mrm.22164.
The prefrontal cortex is a common target brain structure in psychiatry and neuroscience due to its role in working memory and cognitive control. Large differences in magnetic susceptibility between the air-filled sinuses and the tissue/bone in the frontal part of the human head cause a strong and highly localized magnetic field focus in the prefrontal cortex. As a result, image distortion and signal dropout are observed in MR imaging. A set of external electrical coils is presented that provides localized and high-amplitude shim fields in the prefrontal cortex, with minimum impact on the rest of the brain when combined with regular zero- to second-order spherical harmonics shimming. The experimental realization of the new shim method strongly minimized or even eliminated signal dropout in gradient-echo images acquired at settings typically used in functional magnetic resonance at 4 T.
前额叶皮质是精神病学和神经科学中常见的目标脑结构,因为它在工作记忆和认知控制中发挥作用。充满空气的鼻窦与人类头部前部的组织/骨骼之间的磁化率存在巨大差异,导致前额叶皮质中出现强烈且高度局部化的磁场聚焦。因此,在磁共振成像中会观察到图像失真和信号丢失。本文提出了一组外部电线圈,该线圈在前额叶皮质中提供局部化且高幅度的匀场场,与常规的零阶到二阶球谐匀场相结合时,对大脑其余部分的影响最小。新匀场方法的实验实现极大地减少甚至消除了在4T功能磁共振成像通常使用的设置下采集的梯度回波图像中的信号丢失。