Functional MRI of mice olfactory bulbs using novel fMRI methodologies at 15.2T

Spatiotemporal Encoding (SPEN) MRI was used in fully- and non-fully-refocused modes, to capture the activation of olfactory bulbs (OBs) in mice, in response to odors. At the 15.2T field employed, responses on the order of 10% could easily be observed in male OBs; clear but weaker responses were observed in females. In all cases image quality largely exceeded that arising in GE or even SE EPI, with compromises between image quality and fMRI activation “tunable” by SPEN’s refocusing conditions. The high spatial and temporal resolutions achievable in these scans can shed light into this important behavioral cue of social animals.