Identification of Cerebral Networks by Classification of the Shape of BOLD Responses

2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 360-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni d'Avossa ◽  
Gordon L. Shulman ◽  
Maurizio Corbetta

Changes in regional blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals in response to brief visual stimuli can exhibit a variety of time-courses. To demonstrate the anatomical distribution of BOLD response shapes during a match to sample task, a formal analysis of their time-courses is presented. An event-related design was used to estimate regional BOLD responses evoked by a cue word, which instructed the subject to attend to the motion or color of an upcoming target, and those evoked by a briefly presented moving target consisting of colored dots. Regional BOLD time-courses were adequately represented by the linear combination of three orthogonal waveforms. BOLD response shapes were then classified using a fuzzy clustering scheme. Three classes (sustained, phasic, and negative) best characterized cue responses. Four classes (sustained, sustained-phasic, phasic, and bi-phasic) best characterized target responses. In certain regions, the shape of the BOLD responses was modulated by the instruction to attend to the target's motion or color. A left frontal and a posterior parietal region showed sustained activity when motion was cued and transient activity when color was cued. A right thalamic and a left lateral occipital region showed sustained activity when color was cued and transient activity when motion was cued. Following the target several regions showed more sustained activity during motion than color trials. In summary, the effect of the task variable was focal following the cue and widespread following the target. We conclude that the temporal patterns of neural activity affected the shape of the BOLD signal.

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla Krautwald ◽  
Frank Angenstein

To study how various anesthetics affect the relationship between stimulus frequency and generated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals in the rat dentate gyrus, the perforant pathway was electrically stimulated with repetitive low frequency (i.e., 0.625, 1.25, 2.5, 5, and 10 Hz) stimulation trains under isoflurane/N2O, isoflurane, medetomidine, and α-chloralose. During stimulation, the blood oxygen level-dependent signal intensity (BOLD response) and local field potentials in the dentate gyrus were simultaneously recorded to prove whether the present anesthetic controls the generation of a BOLD response via targeting general hemodynamic parameters, by affecting mechanisms of neurovascular coupling, or by disrupting local signal processing. Using this combined electrophysiological/fMRI approach, we found that the threshold frequency (i.e., the minimal frequency required to trigger significant BOLD responses), the optimal frequency (i.e., the frequency that elicit the strongest BOLD response), and the spatial distribution of generated BOLD responses are specific for each anesthetic used. Concurrent with anesthetic-dependent characteristics of the BOLD response, we found the pattern of stimulus-induced neuronal activity in the dentate gyrus is also specific for each anesthetic. Consequently, the anesthetic-specific influence on local signaling processes is the underlying cause for the observation that an identical stimulus elicits different BOLD responses under various anesthetics.


2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 2015-2026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Gutschalk ◽  
Matti S. Hämäläinen ◽  
Jennifer R. Melcher

Blood oxygen level dependent–functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD–fMRI) and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals are both coupled to postsynaptic potentials, although their relationship is incompletely understood. Here, the wide range of BOLD–fMRI and MEG responses produced by auditory cortex was exploited to better understand the BOLD–fMRI/MEG relationship. Measurements of BOLD and MEG responses were made in the same subjects using the same stimuli for both modalities. The stimuli, 24-s sequences of click trains, had duty cycles of 2.5, 25, 72, and 100%. For the 2.5% sequence, the BOLD response was elevated throughout the sequence, whereas for 100%, it peaked after sequence onset and offset and showed a diminished elevation in between. On the finer timescale of MEG, responses at 2.5% consisted of a complex of transients, including N1m, to each click train of the sequence, whereas for 100% the only transients occurred at sequence onset and offset between which there was a sustained elevation in the MEG signal (a sustained field). A model that separately estimated the contributions of transient and sustained MEG signals to the BOLD response best fit BOLD measurements when the transient contribution was weighted 8- to 10-fold more than the sustained one. The findings suggest that BOLD responses in the auditory cortex are tightly coupled to the neural activity underlying transient, not sustained, MEG signals.


2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 2075-2081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Strother ◽  
Adrian Aldcroft ◽  
Cheryl Lavell ◽  
Tutis Vilis

Functional MRI (fMRI) studies of the human object recognition system commonly identify object-selective cortical regions by comparing blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) responses to objects versus those to scrambled objects. Object selectivity distinguishes human lateral occipital cortex (LO) from earlier visual areas. Recent studies suggest that, in addition to being object selective, LO is retinotopically organized; LO represents both object and location information. Although LO responses to objects have been shown to depend on location, it is not known whether responses to scrambled objects vary similarly. This is important because it would suggest that the degree of object selectivity in LO does not vary with retinal stimulus position. We used a conventional functional localizer to identify human visual area LO by comparing BOLD responses to objects versus scrambled objects presented to either the upper (UVF) or lower (LVF) visual field. In agreement with recent findings, we found evidence of position-dependent responses to objects. However, we observed the same degree of position dependence for scrambled objects and thus object selectivity did not differ for UVF and LVF stimuli. We conclude that, in terms of BOLD response, LO discriminates objects from non-objects equally well in either visual field location, despite stronger responses to objects in the LVF.


2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 829-837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory G. Brown ◽  
Lisa T. Eyler Zorrilla ◽  
Bassem Georgy ◽  
Sandra S. Kindermann ◽  
Eric C. Wong ◽  
...  

The authors studied the effects of altering global cerebral blood flow on both blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) response and perfusion response to finger-thumb apposition. A PICORE/QUIPSS II protocol was used to collect interleaved BOLD-weighted and perfusion-weighted images on eight finger-thumb apposition trials. Subjects were studied on a drug-free day and on a day when acetazolamide was administered between the second and third trials. After acetazolamide administration, resting cortical perfusion increased an average of 20% from preadministration levels, whereas the BOLD response to finger-thumb apposition decreased by an average of 35% in the S1M1 hand area. Contrary to predictions from the exhausted cerebrovascular reserve hypothesis and the oxygen limitation model, an effect of acetazolamide on cerebral blood flow response in the S1M1 hand area was not observed. Across the acetazolamide trials, BOLD response was inversely correlated with resting cortical perfusion for individual subject data. These results suggest that resting perfusion affects the magnitude of the BOLD response and is thus an important confounding factor in fMRI studies, and that the physiologic systems that increase cerebral blood flow in response to acetazolamide administration and systems that increase cerebral blood flow in response to altered neural activity appear to have additive effects.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica E. Caterini ◽  
Alyaa H. Elzibak ◽  
Emilie Jean St. Michel ◽  
Brian W. McCrindle ◽  
Andrew N. Redington ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Lauren R. Weiss ◽  
Philip A. Spechler ◽  
Alfonso J. Alfini ◽  
Theresa J. Smith ◽  
Matthew D. Verber ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. B. Liddle ◽  
A. T. Bates ◽  
D. Das ◽  
T. P. White ◽  
M. J. Groom ◽  
...  

BackgroundPatients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives exhibit both abnormally diminished and increased neural activation during cognitive tasks. In particular, excessive task-related activity is often observed when tasks are easy, suggesting that inefficient cerebral recruitment may be a marker of vulnerability for schizophrenia. This hypothesis might best be tested using a very easy task, thus avoiding confounding by individual differences in task difficulty.MethodEighteen people with schizophrenia, 18 unaffected full siblings of patients with schizophrenia and 26 healthy controls performed an easy auditory target-detection task in a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Groups were matched for accuracy on the task. Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses to non-target stimuli in participants with vulnerability for schizophrenia (siblings and patients) were compared with those of healthy controls, and those of patients with those of unaffected siblings. BOLD responses to targets were compared with baseline, across groups.ResultsSubjects with vulnerability for schizophrenia showed significant hyperactivation to non-targets in brain areas activated by targets in all groups, in addition to reduced deactivation to non-targets in areas suppressed by targets in all groups. Siblings showed greater activation than patients to non-targets in the medial frontal cortex. Patients exhibited significantly longer reaction times (RTs) than unaffected siblings and healthy controls.ConclusionsInefficient cerebral recruitment is a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia, marked by reduced suppression of brain areas normally deactivated in response to task stimuli, and increased activation of areas normally activated in response to task stimuli. Moreover, siblings show additional activation in the medial frontal cortex that may be protective.


2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 979-989 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Bennett ◽  
L. Farnell ◽  
W. G. Gibson

The blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging signal arises as a consequence of changes in blood flow and oxygen usage that in turn are modulated by changes in neural activity. Much attention has been given to both theoretical and experimental aspects of the energetics but not to the neural activity. Here we identify the best energetic theory for the steady-state BOLD signal on the basis of correct predictions of experimental observations. This theory is then used, together with the recently determined relationship between energetics and neural activity, to predict how the BOLD signal changes with activity. Unlike existing treatments, this new theory incorporates a nonzero baseline activity in a completely consistent way and is thus able to account for both sustained positive and negative BOLD signals. We also show that the increase in BOLD signal for a given increase in activity is significantly smaller the larger the baseline activity, as is experimentally observed. Furthermore, the decline of the positive BOLD signal arising from deeper cortical laminae in response to an increase in neural firing is shown to arise as a consequence of the larger baseline activity in deeper laminae. Finally, we provide quantitative relations integrating BOLD responses, energetics, and impulse firing, which among other predictions give the same results as existing theories when the baseline activity is zero. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We use a recently established relation between energetics and neural activity to give a quantitative account of BOLD dependence on neural activity. The incorporation of a nonzero baseline neural activity accounts for positive and negative BOLD signals, shows that changes in neural activity give BOLD changes that are smaller the larger the baseline, and provides a basis for the observed inverse relation between BOLD responses and the depth of cortical laminae giving rise to them.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.C. Lacy ◽  
P.A. Robinson ◽  
K.M. Aquino ◽  
J.C. Pang

AbstractA physiologically based three-dimensional (3D) hemodynamic model is used to predict the experimentally observed blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses versus the cortical depth induced by visual stimuli. Prior 2D approximations are relaxed in order to analyze 3D blood flow dynamics as a function of cortical depth. Comparison of the predictions with experimental data for typical stimuli demonstrates that the full 3D model matches at least as well as previous approaches while requiring significantly fewer assumptions and model parameters.


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