Radiology Department, Center for Image Sciences, UMC Utrecht, Netherlands.
Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2023 Mar;43(3):419-432. doi: 10.1177/0271678X221133972. Epub 2022 Oct 19.
Ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers the spatial resolution to measure neuronal activity at the scale of cortical layers. However, cortical depth dependent vascularization differences, such as a higher prevalence of macro-vascular compartments near the pial surface, have a confounding effect on depth-resolved blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI signals. In the current study, we use hypercapnic and hyperoxic breathing conditions to quantify the influence of all venous vascular and micro-vascular compartments on laminar BOLD fMRI, as measured with gradient-echo (GE) and spin-echo (SE) scan sequences, respectively. We find that all venous vascular and micro-vascular compartments are capable of comparable theoretical maximum signal intensities, as represented by the M-value parameter. However, the capacity for vessel dilation, as reflected by the cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), is approximately two and a half times larger for all venous vascular compartments combined compared to the micro-vasculature at superficial layers. Finally, there is roughly a 35% difference in estimates of CBV changes between all venous vascular and micro-vascular compartments, although this relative difference was approximately uniform across cortical depth. Thus, our results suggest that fMRI BOLD signal differences across cortical depth are likely caused by differences in dilation properties between macro- and micro-vascular compartments.
超高场功能磁共振成像(fMRI)提供了测量皮质层尺度神经元活动的空间分辨率。然而,皮质深度相关的血管化差异,如靠近软脑膜表面的大血管隔室的更高流行率,对深度分辨血氧水平依赖(BOLD)fMRI 信号具有混杂效应。在当前的研究中,我们使用高碳酸血症和高氧呼吸条件来量化所有静脉血管和微血管隔室对层分辨 BOLD fMRI 的影响,分别用梯度回波(GE)和自旋回波(SE)扫描序列进行测量。我们发现,所有静脉血管和微血管隔室都能够达到理论上最大信号强度,这由 M 值参数表示。然而,血管扩张的能力,如脑血管反应性(CVR)所示,对于所有静脉血管隔室的组合而言,大约是浅层微血管的两倍半。最后,在所有静脉血管和微血管隔室之间,CBV 变化的估计值存在大约 35%的差异,尽管这种相对差异在皮质深度上大致均匀。因此,我们的结果表明,皮层深度上的 fMRI BOLD 信号差异可能是由于大血管和微血管隔室之间的扩张特性差异引起的。