Ramos-Llordén Gabriel, Lee Hong-Hsi, Davids Mathias, Dietz Peter, Krug Andreas, Kirsch John E, Mahmutovic Mirsad, Müller Alina, Ma Yixin, Lee Hansol, Maffei Chiara, Yendiki Anastasia, Bilgic Berkin, Park Daniel J, Tian Qiyuan, Clifford Bryan, Lo Wei-Ching, Stocker Stefan, Fischer Jasmine, Ruyters Gudrun, Roesler Manuela, Potthast Andreas, Benner Thomas, Rummert Elmar, Schuster Rebecca, Basser Peter J, Witzel Thomas, Wald Lawrence L, Rosen Bruce R, Keil Boris, Huang Susie Y
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA.
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Nat Biomed Eng. 2025 Jul 16. doi: 10.1038/s41551-025-01457-x.
Defining the connectome, the complete matrix of structural connections between the nervous system nodes, is a challenge for human systems neuroscience due to the range of scales that must be bridged. Here we report the design of the Connectome 2.0 human magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to perform connectomics at the mesoscopic and microscopic scales with strong gradients for in vivo human imaging. We construct a 3-layer head-only gradient coil optimized to minimize peripheral nerve stimulation while achieving a gradient strength of 500 mT m and a slew rate of 600 T m s, corresponding to a 5-fold greater gradient performance than state-of-the-art research gradient systems, including the original Connectome (Connectome 1.0) scanner. We find that gains in sensitivity of up to two times were achieved by integrating a 72-channel in vivo head coil and a 64-channel ex vivo whole-brain radiofrequency coil with built-in field monitoring for data fidelity. We demonstrate mapping of fine white matter pathways and inferences of cellular and axonal size and morphology approaching the single-micron level, with at least a 30% sensitivity improvement compared with Connectome 1.0.
定义连接组，即神经系统节点之间结构连接的完整矩阵，对于人类系统神经科学来说是一项挑战，因为必须跨越多个尺度范围。在此，我们报告了Connectome 2.0人体磁共振成像（MRI）扫描仪的设计，该扫描仪能够在介观和微观尺度上进行连接组学研究，具备用于活体人体成像的强梯度。我们构建了一个仅针对头部的三层梯度线圈，经过优化可将周围神经刺激降至最低，同时实现500 mT/m的梯度强度和600 T·m/s的 slew 率，这意味着其梯度性能比包括原始Connectome（Connectome 1.0）扫描仪在内的最先进研究梯度系统高出5倍。我们发现，通过集成一个72通道的活体头部线圈和一个64通道的离体全脑射频线圈，并内置场监测以确保数据保真度，灵敏度提高了两倍。我们展示了精细白质通路的映射以及接近单微米水平的细胞和轴突大小及形态的推断，与Connectome 1.0相比，灵敏度至少提高了30%。
