Robert Trampel1, Pierre-Louis Bazin1, Andreas Schfer1, Robin Martin Heidemann1, Dimo Ivanov1, Gabriele Lohmann1, Stefan Geyer1, Robert Turner1
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
The time course of the BOLD response to a specific task differs across brain areas, giving rise to localized activations. Recent progress in ultra-high resolution fMRI makes it possible additionally to compare the BOLD signal at different cortical depths, giving a more detailed picture of the functional fingerprint of any particular cortical area. We performed fMRI at 7 Tesla with sub-millimeter resolution during imagined and actual finger tapping. The relative BOLD signal time course was observed to vary not only across sensorimotor cortical areas but also between cortical depths within each area.