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Abstract #1142

fMRI Topographic Mapping of the Somatosensory Cortex at 7T Using Multigrid Priors

Selene da Rocha Amaral1, Sue Francis1, Penny Gowland1, Nestor Caticha2

1Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Notts, United Kingdom; 2Institute of Physics, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil


We have applied a Bayesian non-parametric multiscale technique, the iterated Multigrid Priors method, to map the digits of the hand in primary somatosensory cortex for 1mm isotropic spatial resolution data. It is data driven and makes no assumption about the local hemodynamic response as a function of time or space. It was able to detect an orderly pattern of response phases on the posterior bank of the central sulcus (postcentral gyrus) suggesting that the method can also be extended for retinotopic mapping studies of visual cortex. We also showed variations in HRs across digits through local posterior spatial averages.