BOLD Mapping of Finger Movement Compares with the Underlying Electrophysiology; a Combined 7T fMRI and ECoG Study

Jeroen Cornelis Willem Siero¹, ², Dora Hermes¹, ³, Hans Hoogduin², Peter R. Luijten², Nick F. Ramsey¹, Natalia Petridou¹, ²

BOLD fMRI has the potential to map activation patterns of small neuronal ensembles such as columns. However, to confirm whether BOLD activation maps reflect the underlying neuronal activity patterns, a comparison with electrophysiological data is required. Here, we investigate the spatial representation of finger movements using electrocorticography (ECoG) post-implant and presurgical BOLD fMRI at 7T in the same human subjects. We show that BOLD and high frequency ECoG maps are closely matched; movement of three individual fingers could be distinguished on a spatial span of 12 mm. These results are promising for the spatial correspondence between neuronal and vascular responses.