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Abstract #3471

Laminar-Specific Output- To Input-Layer Connections Between Cortical Areas V1 and MT Observed with High-Resolution Resting-State FMRI

Jonathan Rizzo Polimeni1, Bruce Fischl1,2, Douglas N. Greve1, Lawrence L. Wald1,3

1Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States; 2Computer Science and AI Lab (CSAIL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; 3Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States


In this study, we demonstrate a laminar-specific BOLD response using resting state measurements of functional connectivity within visual cortex by exploiting the known anatomical connectivity pattern between output Layer II/III in cortical area V1 and input Layer IV in area MT observed by invasive studies. This laminar correlation signature was absent from cross-hemispheric laminar correlations measured between left and right V1. These V1-to-MT laminar-specific resting state correlations demonstrate the ability of high-resolution rs-fMRI to probe laminar-specific connections and to infer the directionality of the connectivity, and provide evidence that the BOLD signal is controlled, to some degree, on the laminar level.

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