Abstract #2120

Reducing Between-Subject Variability in Stimulus-Evoked BOLD fMRI Using Breath Hold-Derived Vascular Covariates

Emma Biondetti^1,2, Antonio Maria Chiarelli^1,2, Ilona Lipp^3,4, Rachael Stickland^3,5, Alessandro Villani^1,2, Eleonora Patitucci³, Valentina Tomassini^1,2,6,7,8, and Richard Wise^1,2

¹Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Sciences, D'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy, ²Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies, D'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy, ³Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ⁴Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, ⁵Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States, ⁶MS Centre, Neurology Unit, SS. Annunziata University Hospital, Chieti, Italy, ⁷Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ⁸Helen Durham Centre for Neuroinflammation, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Synopsis

The representation of changes in neural activity by blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI is affected by vascular properties including cerebral blood volume (CBV) and cerebral vascular reactivity (CVR). Here, we investigate these factors using a breath-hold BOLD fMRI experiment. We show that a group-level correction of the stimulus-evoked BOLD fMRI signal by these vascular properties reduces between-subject variability and improves sensitivity to the task response. Notably, correcting with a marker of relative CBV does not require individual recordings of exhaled carbon dioxide (in contrast with CVR) and resulted in the highest increase in sensitivity to the task.

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