Abstract #4387

Pushing human neuroscience past 7T: cerebellar imaging at 9.4T

Wietske van der Zwaag^1,2, Desmond H Y Tse³, Benedikt A Poser⁴, and Nikos Priovoulos^1,5,6

¹Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ²Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ³Scannexus BV, Maastricht, Netherlands, ⁴Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands, ⁵Wellcome Centre for Intergrative Neuroimaging, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁶Department of Biomedical Engineering and Physics, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Synopsis

Keywords: High-Field MRI, High-Field MRI, cerebellum

Motivation: High SNR at B0>7T could aid in imaging small structures like those found in the human cerebellum, but neuroscientific feasibility is unclear.

Goal(s): To visualize cerebellar structure and function in-vivo with a 9.4T protocol suitable for neuroscientific experiments.

Approach: 6 individuals were scanned with a cerebellum-tailored MP2RAGE (resolution=0.4mm isotropic) and BOLD-weighted 3D-EPI runs (resolution=0.8/1.0mm isotropic) and a generalized B₁⁺-shim.

Results: The scan sessions (1hour) were feasible for neuroscientific experiments. Sufficient contrast for gray-white matter segmentation, and consistent fMRI responses were found for all participants.

Impact: Reliably visualizing the cerebellum requires pushing past currently-feasible resolutions with B0=7T or lower. We demonstrate that neuroscientific experiments can be performed in the human cerebellum at 9.4T benefitting from elevated SNR and BOLD sensitivity.

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