Sheeba Arnold1, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli2,
Steven Shannon1, John Gabrieli2, Christina
Triantafyllou1,3
1A.A. Martinos Imaging Center, McGovern
Institute for Brain Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States; 2Department
of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States; 3A.A.
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, MGH,
Charlestown, MA, United States
BOLD
activations cannot be located precisely with fMRI at low-resolutions.
Improved sensitivity of 32-channel coil with high-resolution has been
reported, but is yet to be demonstrated using fMRI at 3T. We used the n-back
task to evaluate if this combination would identify the working memory (WM)
network. 12- and 32-channel data at low- and high-resolutions were acquired
in 18 subjects. Paired t-test revealed WM activation for high-resolution to
be significantly more with 32-channel compared to 12-channel. When both coils
are used at 3T, the increased SNR offered by 32-channel coil produces the
greatest benefit for experiments in the high-resolution regime.
Keywords