Daniel Haenelt1,2, Nikolaus Weiskopf1, Lenka Vaculciakova1,2, Roland Mueller1, Shahin Nasr3,4, Jonathan Polimeni3,4, Roger Tootell3,4, Laurentius Huber5, Martin Sereno6, and Robert Trampel1
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, 2International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication: Function, Structure, and Plasticity, Leipzig, Germany, 3Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, United States, 4Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, 5Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Maastricht, Netherlands, 6Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States
Functional
MRI studies classically rely on the use of GE-EPI sequences. However,
the GE-based signal is inherently sensitive to large veins,
which
impairs its use in high-resolution fMRI application. Other BOLD-
and CBV-based approaches like SE-EPI and SS-SI-VASO, respectively,
promise
a higher specificity at the expense of sensitivity.
In the present work, we tested if ocular dominance columns (ODCs) can
be detected using GE-EPI, SE-EPI and SS-SI-VASO at 7 T.
ODCs
could be reliably
mapped
using all three acquisition methods. Furthermore, we
could show for the first time ODCs
in
humans by exploiting
the functional CBV response
using SS-SI-VASO.
