Imaging Functional Decrease of the Cerebrospinal Fluid Volume Fraction with a Spin-Locking FMRI Technique

Tao Jin¹, Seong-Gi Kim¹

A voxel of magnetic resonance imaging often contains blood, tissue water, as well as the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Recent studies have suggested that brain vascular activation could induce a change in the volume fraction of the CSF compartment that serves as a buffer for the brain cortex. However, current detection of CSF volume fraction and its functional change requires multi-compartment data fitting. In this work we aimed to image the CSF compartment directly using a spin-locking technique at 9.4 T. With a long spin-locking preparation, the parenchyma signal can be suppressed and a functional decrease of CSF volume fraction can be robustly detected during cat visual stimulation.