Activation Extent and Tissue Specificity of High-TSNR BOLD at 7T

Javier Gonzalez-Castillo¹, Daniel A. Handwerker¹, Colin Hoy¹, Peter A. Bandettini¹

The sensitivity of BOLD fMRI heavily depends on temporal signal-to-noise ratio (TSNR) and versatility of the hemodynamic response model. Recent work demonstrated that with optimal TSNR and using a sufficiently versatile response model it is possible to detect wide spread activations all over the brain in response to a relatively simple visual stimulation plus attention control task using a 3T scanner and 3.75x3.75x3.8mm3 voxels. Here we extent that work on a 7T scanner to evaluate the tissue specificity of high TSNR activations and the effect of higher field strength.