Neuronal activity causes local changes in cerebral blood flow, blood volume, and blood oxygenation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques sensitive to changes in cerebral blood flow and blood oxygenation were developed by high-speed echo planar imaging. These techniques were used to obtain completely noninvasive tomographic maps of human brain activity, by using visual and motor stimulus paradigms. Changes in blood oxygenation were detected by using a gradient echo (GE) imaging sequence sensitive to the paramagnetic state of deoxygenated hemoglobin. Blood flow changes were evaluated by a spin-echo inversion recovery (IR), tissue relaxation parameter Tl-sensitive pulse sequence. A series of images were acquired continuously with the same imaging pulse sequence (either GE or IR) during task activation. Cine display of subtraction images (activated minus baseline) directly demonstrates activity-induced changes in brain MR signal observed at a temporal resolution of seconds. During 8-Hz patterned-flash photic stimulation, a significant increase in signal intensity (paired t test; P < 0.001) of 1.8% ± 0.8% (GE) and 1.8% ± 0.9% (ID) was observed in the primary visual cortex (Vi) of seven normal volunteers. The mean rise-time constant of the signal change was 4.4 ± 2.2 s for the GE images and 8.9 ± 2.8 s for the IR images. The stimulation frequency dependence of visual activation agrees with previous positron emission tomography observations, with the largest MR signal response occurring at 8 Hz. Similar signal changes were observed within the human primary motor cortex (Ml) during a hand squeezing task and in animal models of increased blood flow by hypercapnia. By using intrinsic blood-tissue contrast, functional MRI opens a spatialtemporal window onto individual brain physiology. The brain possesses anatomically distinct processing regions. A complete understanding of brain function requires determination ofwhere these sites are located, what operations are performed, and how distributed processing is organized (1). Changes in neuronal activity are accompanied by focal changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) (2), blood volume (CBV) (3,4), blood oxygenation (3,5), and metabolism (6, 7). These physiological changes can be used to produce functional maps of component mental operations.Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations provide high spatial-resolution anatomic images primarily based on contrast derived from the tissue-relaxation parameters T1 and T2. Recently, several investigators have demonstrated in animals that brain tissue relaxation is influenced by the oxygenation state of hemoglobin (a T* effect, modulated by the local blood volume) (8-13) and intrinsic tissue perfusion (T1 effect) (14)(15)(16). High-speed MRI techniques sensitive to these relaxation phenomena can thus be used to generate tomographic images of brain activity (17).We report here completely noninvasive MRI of brain activity by techniques with intrinsic sensitivity to CBF and blood oxygenation state. Time-resolved...

Background-The ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) is the chief known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia late in life. To determine the relation between brain responses to tasks requiring memory and the genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease, we performed APOE genotyping and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain in older persons with intact cognition.

The alpha rhythm in the EEG is 8-12 Hz activity present when a subject is awake with eyes closed. In this study, we used simultaneous EEG and fMRI to make maps of regions whose MRI signal changed reliably with modulation in posterior alpha activity. We scanned 11 subjects as they rested with eyes closed. We found that increased alpha power was correlated with decreased MRI signal in multiple regions of occipital, superior temporal, inferior frontal, and cingulate cortex, and with increased signal in the thalamus and insula. These results are consistent with animal experiments and point to the alpha rhythm as an index of cortical inactivity that may be generated in part by the thalamus. These results also may have important implications for interpretation of resting baseline in fMRI studies.

Knowledge of regional cerebral hemodynamics has widespread application for both physiological research and clinical assessment because of the well-established interrelation between physiological function, energy metabolism, and localized blood supply. A magnetic resonance technique was developed for quantitative imaging of cerebral hemodynamics, allowing for measurement of regional cerebral blood volume during resting and activated cognitive states. This technique was used to generate the first functional magnetic resonance maps of human task activation, by using a visual stimulus paradigm. During photic stimulation, localized increases in blood volume (32 +/- 10 percent, n = 7 subjects) were detected in the primary visual cortex. Center-of-mass coordinates and linear extents of brain activation within the plane of the calcarine fissure are reported.