Masaki Fukunaga1,2,
Peter van Gelderen1, Jongho Lee1, Tie-Qiang Li1,
Jacco A. de Zwart1, Hellmut Merkle1, Kant M. Matsuda3,
Eiji Matsuura4, Jeff H. Duyn1
1Advanced MRI
section, LFMI, NINDS, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; 2Biofunctional
Imaging, Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka,
Japan; 3Laboratory of Pathology, NCI, National Institutes of
Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; 4Laboratory of Neuroimmunology, NINDS,
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Variations of magnetic susceptibility have been demonstrated in primary visual cortex and shown to relate to tissue iron content. Here we extend this finding to cortical regions in the parietal lobe of human brain. Comparison of 7T MRI data with iron and myelin histology suggests that iron dominates the contrast across many cortical areas including sensory-motor cortex, cingulate and precuneus. Interestingly, myelin and iron differentially contribute to susceptibility contrast in subcortical white matter versus the optic radiation.
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