Characterization of the Human Habenula In-Vivo & Ex-Vivo at 7T

Barbara Strotmann¹, Marcel Weiss¹, Carsten Kgler¹, Andreas Schfer¹, Robert Trampel¹, Stefan Geyer¹, Arno Villringer¹, Robert Turner¹

The habenula has an important controlling role within the reward system. Overactivation is associated with depression. The habenula is positioned next to the third ventricle and is 5-9 mm in diameter. Therefore, we made use of a high field strength of 7T to obtain high resolution and high contrast T1, T2* und proton density maps to visualize habenula in-vivo and ex-vivo: human habenula shows up equally clearly in T1 and T2* maps, thus likely to be characterized by a high concentration of both myelin and iron. We found structural subdivisions ex-vivo: lateral and medial habenula, with their commissure.