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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Abstract

Functional magnetic resonance imaging has become a primary tool for psychological and cognitive studies or preclinical brain research. As a technique to map brain function, fMRI measures the blood oxygenation level–dependent signal as a collective effect of changes in cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen following changes in neural activity. The use of fMRI in combination with carefully designed task paradigms has enabled scientists to map perceptual, cognitive, or behavioral functions onto brain regions and networks. Spontaneous activity observed with fMRI in task-free resting states has been used to reveal intrinsic functional networks that collectively depict the brain’s functional architecture or connectome. Naturalistic paradigms for fMRI are increasingly used to map brain activation, address neural representation and coding, and characterize brain networks while humans are engaged in a realistic and dynamic environment similar to daily life experiences. In this chapter, we discuss the principles, methods, and applications of fMRI, with emphasis on its biophysical and physiological basis, experimental designs and analysis methods, and applications to human and animal studies. Example data or results from empirical studies are presented to help illustrate methods or support scientific views.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Zhongming Liu & Jiayue Cao

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Zhongming Liu

Authors
  1. Zhongming Liu
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  2. Jiayue Cao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhongming Liu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Bin He

Homework

Homework

Please mark all the correct answers for each of the following questions. Note that each question may have one or more than one correct answer.

  1. 1.

    Which of the following nuclei is the most abundant for functional magnetic resonance imaging?

    1. (A)

      1H

    2. (B)

      13C

    3. (C)

      31P

    4. (D)

      19F

  2. 2.

    Hydrogen protons spin at about 300 MHz in a 7 Tesla MRI system. Which of the following is close to the gyromagnetic ratio (MHz T−1) of 1H spins?

    1. (A)

      42.6

    2. (B)

      6.53

    3. (C)

      40.1

    4. (D)

      11.3

  3. 3.

    Which of the following are true about on-resonance RF excitation?

    1. (A)

      It transmits an oscillating magnetic field along the longitudinal direction.

    2. (B)

      It transmits an oscillating magnetic field in the transverse plane.

    3. (C)

      It transmits an oscillating magnetic field with a frequency that matches the Larmor frequency of the target spin systems.

    4. (D)

      It transmits energy to be effectively absorbed by the target spin systems.

  4. 4.

    Which of the following contribute to the blood oxygenation level-dependent contrast?

    1. (A)

      Cerebral blood flow

    2. (B)

      Cerebral blood volume

    3. (C)

      Cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen

    4. (D)

      Myelin density

  5. 5.

    Which of the following regional changes occur accompanying local neural activation?

    1. (A)

      Arterioles dilate

    2. (B)

      Blood flow increases

    3. (C)

      Oxygen consumption increases

    4. (D)

      Blood oxygenation level increases

  6. 6.

    What happens when the concentration of deoxy-hemoglobin increases?

    1. (A)

      Transverse relaxation becomes faster

    2. (B)

      Transverse magnetization decays faster

    3. (C)

      Longitudinal relaxation becomes faster

    4. (D)

      Longitudinal magnetization recovers faster

  7. 7.

    Which of the following are TRUE about the hemodynamic response function (HRF)?

    1. (A)

      It indicates the hemodynamic response given an impulse input stimulus

    2. (B)

      It indicates the hemodynamic response given a sustained block of input stimulus

    3. (C)

      In HRF, the peak response delays from the time zero

    4. (D)

      In HRF, the peak response precedes the time zero

  8. 8.

    How fast is the fMRI signal typically sampled?

    1. (A)

      Every millisecond

    2. (B)

      Every second

    3. (C)

      Every minute

    4. (D)

      Every hour

  9. 9.

    To derive the response model (or design matrix) for the BOLD time series analysis, one needs to

    1. (A)

      Convolve the stimulus paradigm with the hemodynamic response function

    2. (B)

      Multiply the stimulus paradigm with the hemodynamic response function

    3. (C)

      Add the stimulus paradigm with the hemodynamic response function

    4. (D)

      None of the above

  10. 10.

    In the block design, what would be a typical block duration?

    1. (A)

      30 seconds ON vs. 30 seconds OFF

    2. (B)

      30 milliseconds ON vs. 30 milliseconds OFF

    3. (C)

      30 minutes ON vs. 30 minutes OFF

    4. (D)

      None of the above

  11. 11.

    Which of the following are TRUE about resting state fMRI?

    1. (A)

      It is used to report instrumental noises from the MRI scanner

    2. (B)

      It is used to measure spontaneous brain activity in the absence of overt tasks or stimuli

    3. (C)

      It is used to measure fluctuations in membrane potentials around −70 mV

    4. (D)

      None of the above

  12. 12.

    Functional connectivity as observed with resting state fMRI refers to?

    1. (A)

      Temporal correlations between the signals observed from different brain locations

    2. (B)

      Anatomical connections between different brain locations

    3. (C)

      The relationship between neural and vascular signals in the brain

    4. (D)

      None of the above

  13. 13.

    When applied to resting state fMRI data, independent component analysis

    1. (A)

      Separates brain networks without specifying a seed location

    2. (B)

      Assumes brain networks are spatially independent of one another

    3. (C)

      Shows where in the brain is at rest

    4. (D)

      None of the above

  14. 14.

    To map brain activations with a continuous period of naturalistic stimuli, one can

    1. (A)

      Calculate the voxel-wise correlation between the fMRI signals from a subject during two repeated sessions of the same stimuli

    2. (B)

      Calculate the voxel-wise correlation between the fMRI signals from two subjects during the same stimuli

    3. (C)

      Use a response model derived from convolving a boxcar function with the canonical HRF

    4. (D)

      Calculate the seed-based correlation based on the fMRI signals recorded from a single session

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Liu, Z., Cao, J. (2020). Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In: He, B. (eds) Neural Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43395-6_11

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