Adolf Pfefferbaum1,2, Ajit Shankaranarayanan3,
David Alsop4,5, Sandra Chanraud, 1,2, Anne-Lise Pitel2,
Torsten Rohlfing1, Edith V. Sullivan2
1Neuroscience Program, SRI
International, Menlo Park, CA, United States; 2Psychiatry&Behavioral
Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; 3MR
Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, United States; 4Radiology,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; 5Radiology,
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, m, United States
The
regional distribution, laterality and reliability of volumetric arterial spin
labeling (ASL) measurements of CBF in cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar
regions was determined in normal volunteers. Regional CBF, normalized for
global perfusion, was highly reliable when measured on separate days. There
was considerable regional variability and several regions of significant
lateral asymmetry. The posterior cingulate cortex had the highest perfusion
and the globus pallidus the lowest, may be due to iron-induced signal
attenuation. High rCBF in the posterior cingulate cortex in this task-free
acquisition is consistent with its identification as a principal node of the
"default mode network."