Stimulus-Evoked Response in Cutaneous Veins as Measured by Whole Brain FMRI

Evgeniya Kirilina¹, Ruediger Bruehl², Bernd Ittermann², Arthur Jacobs¹

An increasing number of fMRI studies are complemented by measurements of task-evoked changes of the heart rate, the pupil size or the skin conductance. These parameters reflect changes in the autonomic nervous system and may be employed as indicators of emotional and cognitive processes and regressors for fMRI analysis. Here we show that task-evoked changes in sympathetic outflow can be detected exploiting physiological information, which is already contained in the fMRI scan. We demonstrate that by analyzing signal changes induced by stimulus evoked venous constriction in the scalp, information about bodily arousal can be extracted.