Modeling Neuronal Current MRI Signal with Human Neuron

Qingfei Luo¹, Jia-Hong Gao¹

Previously, neuronal current MRI (ncMRI) signal has been modeled with the real neuronal morphology and physiology in animals, such as monkey and rat. This study is an extension of the ncMRI modeling work to human subjects using human pyramidal neurons. The difference of neuron density in different human cortical layers is considered in calculation of ncMRI signal to achieve higher simulation accuracy. Our results show that ncMRI magnitude/phase signal changes are up to 1.810-5/0.02 when using the typical gradient echo EPI pulse sequence. In practice, such a small signal change is difficult to be detected using present MRI technology.