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Abstract #3185

Investigation of Venous Effects in Spinal Cord FMRI Using Hypercapnia

Claudine Gauthier1,2, Julien Cohen-Adad1,3, Jonathan Brooks4, Serge Rossignol1, Richard D. Hoge1,2

1Department of Physiology, Universit de Montral, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 2Unit de Neuroimagerie Fonctionnelle, Institut universitaire de griatrie de Montral, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 3INSERM U678, Univ Paris 6, Piti-Salptrire Hospital, Paris, France; 4PaIN Group, FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford, UK


Hypercapnia can be used as a control stimulus to study the sensitivity of BOLD responses in the spinal cord as it is is known to cause large increases in perfusion and subsequently in BOLD signal. In this study we built further on previous investigation by comparing responses to hypercapnia and a motor task in the spinal cord and the brain. SWI was also used to investigate the spatial concordance of the most significant responses with large veins.Lar gest activations were found in large veins, both in the brain and the spine, with spatial concordance of hypercapnia and motor task.