Mapping Human Subcortical Areas in vivo Based on T2*-Weighted, R2* and Phase Images at 7 T

Bing Yao¹, Zhongming Liu¹, Peter van Gelderen¹, Jeff H. Duyn¹

Subcortical brain regions such as the basal ganglia and thalamus have important roles in brain function that may be compromised by many diseases. Their accurate localization is often challenging with clinical MRI contrast such as T1 and T2 that are optimized to distinguish the main tissue compartments of CSF, grey and white matter. Previous work has shown that magnetic susceptibility contrast (T2* weighted magnitude, R2*, and phase images) may provide additional contrast in subcortical regions. Here, we set out to generate a brain atlas aiming to distinguish the sub-regions in the subcortical areas that are not clearly visible in a conventional T1-based atlas.