Abstract #0298

Finger-Tapping Task fMRI in the Human Cervical Spinal Cord at 7T

Alan C Seifert^1,2,3,4, Yazhuo Kong^4,5, Karla L Miller⁴, Irene Tracey⁴, and S Johanna Vannesjo⁴

¹Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, ²Department of Radiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, ³Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, ⁴Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, FMRIB, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁵Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Functional MRI of the spinal cord is challenging due to its small size and deep anatomical location. Increasing field strength enhances BOLD signal and improves SNR, but B₀ distortions produced by the lungs and vertebral column are amplified, presenting additional challenges in protocol optimization. Barry et al. have successfully performed resting-state fMRI at 7T; here, we present observations of robust, well-localized motor task activation in the human cervical spinal cord at 7T. We assessed single-shot and multi-shot EPI at two different resolutions. Multi-shot EPI achieved finer resolution and less spatial distortion in this preliminary 7T spinal cord task fMRI study.

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