Abstract #0300

Experimental Investigation of the Relation Between Gradient Echo BOLD fMRI Contrast and Underlying Susceptibility Changes at 7T

Dvid Z. Balla¹, Rosa M. Sanchez Panchuelo², Samuel J. Wharton², Gisela E. Hagberg¹,³, Klaus Scheffler¹,³, Susan T. Francis², Richard W. Bowtell²

¹High-field MR Centre, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tbingen, Germany; ²Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom; ³Department for Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Imaging, University of Tbingen, Tbingen, Germany

Gradient echo BOLD fMRI contrast was compared to the underlying local susceptibility changes, calculated from the same time-series using functional quantitative susceptibility mapping (fQSM). Comparing voxels coincidentally activated in both fQSM and GE-fMRI, differences were found between motor, visual and somatosensory paradigms in the respective brain areas. In most of these common voxels the signs of susceptibility and magnitude change were opposite confirming expectations. Yet, in a significant number of voxels the signs matched, suggesting strong non-local contributions. Experiments with the motor paradigm showed positive susceptibility shifts and magnitude signal changes in deep cortical layers.