FUNDAMENTALS OF FUNCTIONAL MRI

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The present study will test the hypothesis that dynamic BOLD fMRI contrast has vascular and metabolic components that vary over time and space, and that with sufficient a priori information, measurement of particular aspects of the BOLD signal can provide unique information about the physiological events resulting from task activation. We further hypothesize that because of their mechanistic specificity, "perfusion contrast" fMRI techniques will provide improved physiological spatial accuracy and magnitude correlation corresponding to neuronal activity. To test this hypothesis, the following four specific aims will be addressed: 1) to characterize the influence of resting blood flow (CBF), blood volume (CBV), oxygen uptake and vascular architecture on the activation-induced BOLD signal; 2) to determine the physiological spatial resolution of the fMRI signal corresponding to neural activation; 3) to determine the temporal characteristics of the fMRI signal related to neuronal activity; and 4) to determine the physiological (neuronal) basis of spatially correlated spontaneous fluctuations in flow/BOLD in human and animal brain.