IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2021 May;68(5):1611-1618. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2020.3027296. Epub 2021 Apr 21.
The purpose of the present study was to fabricate a novel RF coil exclusively for visualizing submillimeter tissue structure and probing neuronal activity in cerebral cortex over anesthetized and awake animals on 7T human scanners.
A novel RF coil design has been proposed for visualizing submillimeter tissue structure and probing neuronal activity in cerebral cortex over anesthetized and awake animals on 7T human scanners: a local transmit coil was utilized to save space for auxiliary device installation; 16 receive-only loops were densely arranged over a 5 cm-diameter circular area, with a diameter of 1.3 cm for each loop.
In anesthetized macaque experiments, 60 μm T-weighted images were successfully obtained with cortical gyri and sulci exquisitely visualized; over awake macaques, bilateral activations of visual areas including V1, V2, V4, and MST were distinctly detected at 1 mm; over the cat, robust activations were recorded in areas 17 and 18 (V1 and V2) as well as in their connected area of lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) at 0.3 mm resolution.
The promising brain imaging results along with flexibility in various size use of the presented design can be an effective and maneuverable solution to take one step close towards mesoscale cortical-related imaging.
High-spatial-resolution brain imaging over large animals by using ultra-high-field (UHF) MRI will be helpful to understand and reveal functional brain organizations and the underlying mechanism in diseases.
本研究的目的是设计一种新型射频线圈，专门用于在 7T 人扫描仪上对麻醉和清醒动物的大脑皮层进行亚毫米组织结构成像和探测神经元活动。
我们提出了一种新型射频线圈设计，用于在 7T 人扫描仪上对麻醉和清醒动物的大脑皮层进行亚毫米组织结构成像和探测神经元活动：利用局部发射线圈为辅助设备的安装节省空间；16 个仅接收的线圈紧密排列在一个 5cm 直径的圆形区域上，每个线圈的直径为 1.3cm。
在麻醉猕猴实验中，成功获得了 60μm T 加权图像，皮质脑回和脑沟得到了精细的显示；在清醒猕猴上，在 1mm 处可以明显探测到包括 V1、V2、V4 和 MST 在内的视觉区域的双侧激活；在猫身上，在 0.3mm 分辨率下，在区域 17 和 18（V1 和 V2）以及它们在外侧膝状体核（LGN）中的连接区域记录到了强烈的激活。
该设计具有良好的脑成像效果，并且可以灵活地适用于各种尺寸，是向中尺度皮层相关成像迈进的有效且灵活的解决方案。
使用超高场（UHF）MRI 对大动物进行高空间分辨率脑成像将有助于理解和揭示疾病中的功能脑组织和潜在机制。
