Natalia Petridou1, Ben M. Harvey2,
Serge O. Dumoulin2, S F.W. Neggers3, Tjerk Gutteling3,
Peter Luijten1, Hans Hoogduin1
1UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2Psychology,
Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands; 3Rudolf Magnus Institute
for Neuroscience, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
The
advent of high fields has made it possible to reconstruct the functional
organization of ocular-dominance columns in the human cortex with
sub-millimeter in-plane (2D) resolution. However, 2D-based imaging techniques
necessarily use anisotropic spatial resolution and are restricted to subjects
that have relatively flat regions of cortex. Using 3D EPI with sub-millimeter
isotropic resolution at 7T and a differential ocular stimulation we found
alternating activation patterns in V1 which may relate to the expected
ocular-dominance column distribution. This suggests that at 7T, 3D EPI can
offer an avenue for sub-millimeter isotropic mapping not limited by the
underlying anatomy.