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Kim and Jahng: b0 Dependent Neuronal Activation in the Diffusion-Based Functional MRI
Original Article

Progress in Medical Physics 2019;30(1):22-31.

Published online: 19 March 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14316/pmp.2019.30.1.22

b0 Dependent Neuronal Activation in the Diffusion-Based Functional MRI

Hyug-Gi Kim1, Geon-Ho Jahng2,

1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Yongin

2Department of Radiology, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding author Geon-Ho Jahng (ghjahng@gmail.com) Tel: 82-2-440-6187 Fax: 82-2-440-6932

Received 14 January 2019       Revised 5 March 2019       Accepted 5 March 2019

Copyright © 2019 Korean Society of Medical Physics

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose:

To develop a new diffusion-based functional MRI (fMRI) sequence to generate apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in single excitation and evaluate the contribution of b0 signal on neuronal changes.

Materials and Methods:

A diffusion-based fMRI sequence was designed with single measurement that can acquire images of three directions at a time, obtaining b = 0 s/mm2 during the first baseline condition (b0_b), followed by 107 diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with b = 600 s/mm2 during the baseline and visual stimulation conditions, and another b = 0 s/mm2 during the last activation condition (b0_a). ADC was mapped in three different ways: 1) using b0_b (ADC_b) for all time points, 2) using b0_a (ADC_a) for all time points, and 3) using b0_b and b0_a (ADC_ba) for baseline and stimulation scans, respectively. The fMRI studies were conducted on the brains of 16 young healthy volunteers using visual stimulations in a 3T MRI system. In addition, the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI was also acquired to compare it with diffusion-based fMRI. A sample t-test was used to investigate the voxel-wise average between the subjects.

Results:

The BOLD data consisted of only activated voxels. However, ADC_ba data was observed in both deactivated and activated voxels. There were no statistically significant activated or deactivated voxels for DWI, ADC_b, and ADC_a.

Conclusions:

With the new sequence, neuronal activations can be mapped with visual stimulation as compared to the baseline condition in several areas in the brain. We showed that ADC should be mapped using both DWI and b0 images acquired with the same conditions.

Keywords: Brain function, Functional MRI, Diffusion, ADC, BOLD

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Fig. 1
Diagrams of the diffusion-based functional MRI sequence (a) and the gradient for diffusion-weighting (b). Diffusion gradients were applied on the three axes to map isotropic apparent diffusion coefficient in a single acquisition. (a) RF, radio frequency; Gx, readout direction; Gy, phase-encoding direction; Gz, slice-selection direction; TE, echo time; TR, repetition time; and Echo, echo signal. (b) g, gradient strength; δ, duration of the diffusion gradient; ε, length of slope (ramp time); Δ, diffusion time.
pmp-30-22f1.tif
Fig. 2
The scan orders (a) and the stimulation paradigm (b) for the diffusion-based functional MRI acquisitions. The same stimulation paradigm was applied on the BOLD fMRI scans. b0_b, the first baseline scan; b0_a, the last activation scan; DWI, diffusion-weighted imaging scans.
pmp-30-22f2.tif
Fig. 3
Results of BOLD (a) and ADC_ba (b) for activated and deactivated brain regions for visual stimulation over 15 subjects. The results for activation and deactivation are observed with P<0.001 for correcting multiple comparisons using a false discovery rate (FDR), respectively. In the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) data, increased (red) neuronal activations were found during the visual stimulation, and no deactivation areas were observed. In the ADC_ba data, increased (red) and decreased (blue) neuronal activations were found during the visual stimulation. ADC_ba was apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapped with using both b0_b and b0_a for the baseline scans and activation scans, respectively. The color-coded maps are overlaid on the standard axial T1 template.
pmp-30-22f3.tif
Table 1.
Significantly activated brain regions during the visual stimulation using the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) method in all subjects.
Region BA Talairach coordinate Z-score Cluster size
X Y Z
Activation (Stimulation “ >” Baseline)
Occipital lobe Right Lingual gyrus 18 8.04 −87.35 −5.66 6.46 8711
Left Inferior temporal gyrus 17 −15.99 −90.6 −9.98 6.43 8711
Sub-lobar Right Lateral geniculum   23.05 −25.59 −3.16 5.57 136
Left Lateral geniculum   −19.55 −27.41 −2.25 5.22 86

Results of one-sample t-test with P<0.005, correcting for multiple comparisons using a false discovery rate (FDR) and the extent threshold with 10 voxels. There were no deactivation (Visual stimulation <Baseline) areas. BA, Brodmann area.

Table 2.
Significantly activated or deactivated brain regions during the visual stimulation for ADC_ba data in all subjects.
Region BA Talairach coordinate Z-score Cluster size
X Y Z
Activation (Stimulation “ >” Baseline)
Occipital lobe Right Lingual gyrus ∗ 13.58 −65.54 1.9 6.47 1427
19 17.39 −66.55 −7.14 6.4 1427
19 24.74 −68.8 −3.62 5.93 1427
Frontal lobe Right Precentral gyrus 44 54.52 12.68 8.2 6.54 2405
Superior frontal gyrus 9 19.17 59.04 35.42 5.05 509
  24.85 61.74 26.76 4.99 509
Inferior frontal gyrus 47 23.45 13.94 −22.83 4.15 17
Superior frontal gyrus 8 4.01 40.08 56.79 3.78 15
Left Precentral gyrus 6 −51.1 1.35 12.55 Inf 3084
Superior frontal gyrus 10 0.77 63.56 28.33 5.52 509
  10 −34.35 54.95 21.51 4.38 57
Middle frontal gyrus 10 −25.1 62.18 24.16 4.28 57
Superior frontal gyrus 9 −17.82 59.4 33.03 3.86 57
8 −38.53 22.19 48.97 4.23 41
Precentral gyrus 4 −57.09 −16.49 41.39 4.02 25
Superior frontal gyrus 6 −3.42 38.08 58.28 3.85 15
Parietal lobe Left Postcentral gyrus 40 −53.11 −23.56 17.36 5.58 40
3 −49.8 −13.67 50.79 3.97 25
Temporal lobe Left Superior temporal gyrus 13 −56.9 −40.66 19.28 5.18 52
Middle temporal gyrus 22 −54.83 −37.24 3.43 4.1 52
Superior temporal gyrus 13 −43.42 1.54 −8.92 7.12 3084
Limbic lobe Right Posterior cingulate 30 6.11 −55.02 9.98 5.07 482
Left Parahippocampal gyrus, amygdala   −28.59 −7.51 −13.13 7.73 4307
Posterior cingulate 29 −6.86 −51.4 11.9 5.37 482
23 −1.35 −57.19 13.25 5.06 482
Anterior cingulate 33 −1.14 15.65 18.35 4.72 26
Sub-lobar Right Insula 13 43.22 −8.81 16.79 7.47 2405
  46.8 −18.84 23.1 5.78 2405
Left Insula 13 −41.8 −0.21 8.95 Inf 3084
Deactivation (Baseline “ >” Stimulation)
Occipital lobe Right Cuneus 19 5.7 −85.41 32.32 4.14 11
Left Cuneus 19 −16.57 −82.09 37.66 4.37 12
Frontal lobe Right Precentral gyrus 4 35.51 −20.17 37.2 7.08 68
Middle frontal gyrus 9 33.85 26.94 36.23 6.92 1078
9 26.52 38.5 33.6 6.91 1078
6 16.78 3.92 60.79 6.85 1078
6 7.44 −11.29 62.79 5.25 50
6 5.65 1.94 62.21 5.48 57
Left Middle frontal gyrus 9 −21.63 36.72 34.42 7.1 1388
8 −1.39 26.6 41.01 6.42 1388
8 −14.31 37.84 41.85 6.3 1388
6 −1.76 −10.89 59.07 5.02 50
Parietal lobe Right Inferior parietal lobule 40 40.84 −52.92 45 Inf 414
  46.47 −50.57 39.91 7.31 414
Inferior parietal lobule 39 42.73 −63.59 38.61 5.19 414
Superior parietal lobule 7 24.01 −66.92 54.2 4.3 81
Left Inferior parietal lobule 40 −46.11 −55.85 39.65 6.1 147
Supramarginal gyrus 40 −51.57 −53.26 32.59 5.78 147
Inferior parietal lobule 39 −46.14 −65.17 38.76 4.98 147
Precuneus 7 −25.88 −76.97 43.39 4.22 21
Temporal 1obe Right Transverse temporal gyrus 41 43.22 −27.09 11.45 5.23 117
Middle temporal gyrus 39 52.45 −54.74 5.38 5.26 28
Left Superior temporal gyrus 22 −55.07 −59.13 15.76 5.19 29
Sub-lobar Right Insula 13 37.63 −21.82 15.46 7.13 117

Results of one-sample t-test with P<0.001, correcting for multiple comparisons using a false discovery rate (FDR) and the extent threshold with 10 voxels.

BA, Brodmann area.

ADC_ba, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapped with using both b0_b and b0_a for baseline scans and stimulation scans, respectively.

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