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Leong ATL, Wang X, Wong EC, Dong CM, Wu EX. Neural activity temporal pattern dictates long-range propagation targets. Neuroimage 2021; 235:118032. [PMID: 33836268 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Revised: 03/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain possesses a complex spatiotemporal architecture for efficient information processing and computing. However, it remains unknown how neural signal propagates to its intended targets brain-wide. Using optogenetics and functional MRI, we arbitrarily initiated various discrete neural activity pulse trains with different temporal patterns and revealed their distinct long-range propagation targets within the well-defined, topographically organized somatosensory thalamo-cortical circuit. We further observed that such neural activity propagation over long range could modulate brain-wide sensory functions. Electrophysiological analysis indicated that distinct propagation pathways arose from system level neural adaptation and facilitation in response to the neural activity temporal characteristics. Together, our findings provide fundamental insights into the long-range information transfer and processing. They directly support that temporal coding underpins the whole brain functional architecture in presence of the vast and relatively static anatomical architecture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex T L Leong
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR
| | - Xunda Wang
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR
| | - Eddie C Wong
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR
| | - Celia M Dong
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR
| | - Ed X Wu
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR; School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR.
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Lau C, Manno FAM, Dong CM, Chan KC, Wu EX. Auditory-visual convergence at the superior colliculus in rat using functional MRI. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2019; 2018:5531-5536. [PMID: 30441590 DOI: 10.1109/embc.2018.8513633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
The superior colliculus (SC) of the midbrain has been a model structure for multisensory processing. Many neurons in the intermediate and deep SC layers respond to two or more of auditory, visual, and somatosensory stimuli as assessed by electrophysiology. In contrast, noninvasive and large field of view functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have focused on multisensory processing in the cortex. In this study, we applied blood oxygenation leveldependent (BOLD) fMRI on Sprague-Dawley rats receiving monaural (auditory) and binocular (visual) stimuli to study subcortical multisensory processing. Activation was observed in the left superior olivary complex, lateral lemniscus, and inferior colliculus and both hemispheres of the superior colliculus during auditory stimulation. The SC response was bilateral even though the stimulus was monaural. During visual stimulation, activation was observed in both hemispheres of the SC and lateral geniculate nucleus. In both hemispheres of the SC, the number of voxels in the activation area $( \mathrm {p}<10 -8$) and BOLD signal changes $( \mathrm {p}<0.01)$ were significantly greater during visual than auditory stimulation. These results provide functional imaging evidence that the SC is a site of auditoryvisual convergence due to its involvement in both auditory and visual processing. The auditory and visual fMRI activations likely reflect the firing of unisensory and multisensory neurons in the SC. The present study lays the groundwork for noninvasive functional imaging studies of multisensory convergence and integration in the SC.
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Reynaud O, da Silva AR, Gruetter R, Jelescu IO. Multi-slice passband bSSFP for human and rodent fMRI at ultra-high field. J Magn Reson 2019; 305:31-40. [PMID: 31195214 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmr.2019.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2019] [Revised: 05/07/2019] [Accepted: 05/28/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) can be used as an alternative to gradient-echo (GE) EPI for BOLD functional MRI when image distortions and signal drop-outs are severe such as at ultra-high field. However, 3D-bSSFP acquisitions have distinct drawbacks on either human or animal MR systems. On clinical scanners, 3D imaging is suboptimal for localized fMRI applications. It can also display distortions when acceleration methods such as spiral read-outs are used, and, compared to multi-slice acquisitions, suffers from increased sensitivity to motion or physiological noise which further results in blurring. On pre-clinical systems, 3D acquisitions have low temporal resolution due to limited acceleration options, while single slice often results in insufficient coverage. The aim of the present study was to implement a multi-slice bSSFP acquisition with Cartesian read-out to obtain non-distorted BOLD fMRI activation maps in the human and rat brain at ultra-high field. We show that, when using a new pseudo-steady-state, the bSSFP signal characteristics are preserved. In the human brain at 7 T, we demonstrate that both task- and resting-state fMRI can be performed with multi-slice bSSFP, with a temporal SNR that matches that of 3D-bSSFP, resulting in - at least - equal performance. In the rat brain at 14 T, we show that the multi-slice bSSFP protocol has similar sensitivity to gradient-echo EPI for task fMRI, while benefitting from much reduced distortions and drop-outs. The advantages of passband bSSFP at 14 T in comparison with GE-EPI are expected to be even more marked for mouse brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivier Reynaud
- Centre d'Imagerie Biomédicale, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Analina R da Silva
- Centre d'Imagerie Biomédicale, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Rolf Gruetter
- Centre d'Imagerie Biomédicale, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Ileana O Jelescu
- Centre d'Imagerie Biomédicale, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Leong ATL, Gu Y, Chan YS, Zheng H, Dong CM, Chan RW, Wang X, Liu Y, Tan LH, Wu EX. Optogenetic fMRI interrogation of brain-wide central vestibular pathways. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:10122-9. [PMID: 31028140 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1812453116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The vestibular system provides a critical role to coordinate balance and movement, yet it remains an underappreciated sense. Functional MRI (fMRI) reveals much information about brain-wide sensory and cognitive processes. However, fMRI mapping of regions that actively process vestibular information remains technically challenging, as it can permit only limited movement during scanning. Here, we deploy fMRI and optogenetic stimulation of vestibular excitatory neurons to visualize numerous brain-wide central vestibular pathways and interrogate their functional roles in multisensory processing. Our study highlights multiple routes to investigate vestibular functions and their integration with other sensory systems. We reveal a method to gain critical knowledge into this critical brain system. Blood oxygen level-dependent functional MRI (fMRI) constitutes a powerful neuroimaging technology to map brain-wide functions in response to specific sensory or cognitive tasks. However, fMRI mapping of the vestibular system, which is pivotal for our sense of balance, poses significant challenges. Physical constraints limit a subject’s ability to perform motion- and balance-related tasks inside the scanner, and current stimulation techniques within the scanner are nonspecific to delineate complex vestibular nucleus (VN) pathways. Using fMRI, we examined brain-wide neural activity patterns elicited by optogenetically stimulating excitatory neurons of a major vestibular nucleus, the ipsilateral medial VN (MVN). We demonstrated robust optogenetically evoked fMRI activations bilaterally at sensorimotor cortices and their associated thalamic nuclei (auditory, visual, somatosensory, and motor), high-order cortices (cingulate, retrosplenial, temporal association, and parietal), and hippocampal formations (dentate gyrus, entorhinal cortex, and subiculum). We then examined the modulatory effects of the vestibular system on sensory processing using auditory and visual stimulation in combination with optogenetic excitation of the MVN. We found enhanced responses to sound in the auditory cortex, thalamus, and inferior colliculus ipsilateral to the stimulated MVN. In the visual pathway, we observed enhanced responses to visual stimuli in the ipsilateral visual cortex, thalamus, and contralateral superior colliculus. Taken together, our imaging findings reveal multiple brain-wide central vestibular pathways. We demonstrate large-scale modulatory effects of the vestibular system on sensory processing.
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Blazquez Freches G, Chavarrias C, Shemesh N. BOLD-fMRI in the mouse auditory pathway. Neuroimage 2018; 165:265-277. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.10.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2017] [Revised: 10/09/2017] [Accepted: 10/13/2017] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
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Kim JW, Kim SG, Park SH. Phase imaging with multiple phase-cycled balanced steady-state free precession at 9.4 T. NMR Biomed 2017; 30:e3699. [PMID: 28187250 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.3699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2016] [Revised: 12/23/2016] [Accepted: 12/29/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
While phase imaging with a gradient echo (GRE) sequence is popular, phase imaging with balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) has been underexplored. The purpose of this study was to investigate anatomical and functional phase imaging with multiple phase-cycled bSSFP, in expectation of increasing spatial coverage of steep phase-change regions of bSSFP. Eight different dynamic 2D pass-band bSSFP studies at four phase-cycling (PC) angles and two TE /TR values were performed on rat brains at 9.4 T with electrical forepaw stimulation, in comparison with dynamic 2D GRE. Anatomical and functional phase images were obtained by averaging the dynamic phase images and mapping correlation between the dynamic images and the stimulation paradigm, and were compared with their corresponding magnitude images. Phase imaging with 3D pass-band and 3D transition-band bSSFP was also performed for comparison with 3D GRE phase imaging. Two strategies of combining the multiple phase-cycled bSSFP phase images were also proposed. Contrast between white matter and gray matter in bSSFP phase images significantly varied with PC angle and became twice as high as that of GRE phase images at a specific PC angle. With the same total scan time, the combined bSSFP phase images provided stronger phase contrast and visualized neuronal fiber-like structures more clearly than the GRE phase images. The combined phase images of both 3D pass-band and 3D transition-band bSSFP showed phase contrasts stronger than those of the GRE phase images in overall brain regions, even at a longer TE of 20 ms. In contrast, phase functional MRI (fMRI) signals were weak overall and mostly located in draining veins for both bSSFP and GRE. Multiple phase-cycled bSSFP phase imaging is a promising anatomical imaging technique, while its usage as fMRI does not seem desirable with the current approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jae-Woong Kim
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea
| | - Seong-Gi Kim
- Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Suwon, South Korea
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, South Korea
| | - Sung-Hong Park
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea
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Gesnik M, Blaize K, Deffieux T, Gennisson JL, Sahel JA, Fink M, Picaud S, Tanter M. 3D functional ultrasound imaging of the cerebral visual system in rodents. Neuroimage 2017; 149:267-274. [PMID: 28167348 PMCID: PMC5387157 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.01.071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2016] [Revised: 01/27/2017] [Accepted: 01/30/2017] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
3D functional imaging of the whole brain activity during visual task is a challenging task in rodents due to the complex tri-dimensional shape of involved brain regions and the fine spatial and temporal resolutions required to reveal the visual tract. By coupling functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging with a translational motorized stage and an episodic visual stimulation device, we managed to accurately map and to recover the activity of the visual cortices, the Superior Colliculus (SC) and the Lateral Geniculate Nuclei (LGN) in 3D. Cerebral Blood Volume (CBV) responses during visual stimuli were found to be highly correlated with the visual stimulus time profile in visual cortices (r=0.6), SC (r=0.7) and LGN (r=0.7). These responses were found dependent on flickering frequency and contrast, and optimal stimulus parameters for largest CBV increases were obtained. In particular, increasing the flickering frequency higher than 7 Hz revealed a decrease of visual cortices response while the SC response was preserved. Finally, cross-correlation between CBV signals exhibited significant delays (d=0.35 s +/−0.1 s) between blood volume response in SC and visual cortices in response to our visual stimulus. These results emphasize the interest of fUS imaging as a whole brain neuroimaging modality for brain vision studies in rodent models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Gesnik
- Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM U979, 75012 Paris, France.
| | - Kevin Blaize
- Institut de la Vision, Sorbonne Universités UPMC, University of Paris 06, INSERM UMR_S 968, CNRS UMR 7210, 75012 Paris, France
| | - Thomas Deffieux
- Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM U979, 75012 Paris, France
| | - Jean-Luc Gennisson
- Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM U979, 75012 Paris, France
| | - José-Alain Sahel
- Institut de la Vision, Sorbonne Universités UPMC, University of Paris 06, INSERM UMR_S 968, CNRS UMR 7210, 75012 Paris, France; Fondation Ophtalmologique Adolphe de Rothschild, 75019 Paris, France; CHNO des Quinze-Vingts, DHU Sight Restore, INSERM-DGOS CIC 1423, 75012 Paris, France; Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, 15213 PA, USA; Academie des Sciences, Paris
| | - Mathias Fink
- Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM U979, 75012 Paris, France
| | - Serge Picaud
- Institut de la Vision, Sorbonne Universités UPMC, University of Paris 06, INSERM UMR_S 968, CNRS UMR 7210, 75012 Paris, France
| | - Mickaël Tanter
- Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 7587, INSERM U979, 75012 Paris, France
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Leong AT, Chan RW, Gao PP, Chan YS, Tsia KK, Yung WH, Wu EX. Long-range projections coordinate distributed brain-wide neural activity with a specific spatiotemporal profile. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016; 113:E8306-15. [PMID: 27930323 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1616361113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
One challenge in contemporary neuroscience is to achieve an integrated understanding of the large-scale brain-wide interactions, particularly the spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity that give rise to functions and behavior. At present, little is known about the spatiotemporal properties of long-range neuronal networks. We examined brain-wide neural activity patterns elicited by stimulating ventral posteromedial (VPM) thalamo-cortical excitatory neurons through combined optogenetic stimulation and functional MRI (fMRI). We detected robust optogenetically evoked fMRI activation bilaterally in primary visual, somatosensory, and auditory cortices at low (1 Hz) but not high frequencies (5-40 Hz). Subsequent electrophysiological recordings indicated interactions over long temporal windows across thalamo-cortical, cortico-cortical, and interhemispheric callosal projections at low frequencies. We further observed enhanced visually evoked fMRI activation during and after VPM stimulation in the superior colliculus, indicating that visual processing was subcortically modulated by low-frequency activity originating from VPM. Stimulating posteromedial complex thalamo-cortical excitatory neurons also evoked brain-wide blood-oxygenation-level-dependent activation, although with a distinct spatiotemporal profile. Our results directly demonstrate that low-frequency activity governs large-scale, brain-wide connectivity and interactions through long-range excitatory projections to coordinate the functional integration of remote brain regions. This low-frequency phenomenon contributes to the neural basis of long-range functional connectivity as measured by resting-state fMRI.
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Baumgartner R, Cho W, Coimbra A, Chen C, Wang Z, Struyk A, Venketasubramanian N, Low M, Gargano C, Zhao F, Williams D, Reese T, Seah S, Feng D, Apreleva S, Petersen E, Evelhoch JL. Evaluation of an fMRI USPIO-based assay in healthy human volunteers. J Magn Reson Imaging 2016; 46:124-133. [PMID: 27775841 DOI: 10.1002/jmri.25499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2015] [Accepted: 09/12/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE To present the testretest and contrast dose effect results of cerebral blood volume (CBV) functional MRI (fMRI) in healthy human volunteers using ferumoxytol (Feraheme), an ultrasmall-superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) nanoparticle. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was an open-label, two-period, fixed-sequence study in healthy young volunteers. In eight subjects, using a 3 Tesla field strength system, blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) and CBV fMRI were acquired in response to a visual black-and-white checkboard stimulation paradigm using an escalating ferumoxytol dose design (250, 350, and 510 mg iron). Multiple outcome measures were analyzed including absolute percent signal change (|PSC|, primary endpoint), its contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and corresponding z-score, percent CBV change (ΔCBV) and respective CNR, concentration of Fe, and baseline CBV. RESULTS The |PSC| in the visual cortex increased with ferumoxytol dose and was up to 3 × higher than BOLD fMRI. Test-retest reliability was comparable for BOLD and CBV fMRI. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for |PSC| were 0.3 (one-sided 95% lower confidence limit = 0.00), 0.81 (0.47), 0.48 (0.00), and 0.3 (0.00) for BOLD and the 250-, 350-, and 510-mg doses of ferumoxytol, respectively. For ΔCBV, ICCs were 0.77 (0.37), 0.48 (0.00), and 0.49 (0.00) for 250 mg, 350 mg, and 510 mg, respectively. CONCLUSION This work demonstrates that CBV fMRI techniques and endpoints are dose dependent, robust and have good test-retest repeatability. It also confirms previous findings that USPIO enhances sensitivity of fMRI stimulus-response endpoints. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 1 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2017;46:124-133.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - William Cho
- Merck & Co. Inc, Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA
| | | | - Christopher Chen
- Memory Aging & Cognition Centre at National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Zaiqi Wang
- Merck & Co. Inc, Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA
| | - Arie Struyk
- Merck & Co. Inc, Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA
| | | | - May Low
- Merck & Co. Inc, Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Dai Feng
- Merck & Co. Inc, Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA
| | | | - Esben Petersen
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology, National University Singapore
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Lau C, Pienkowski M, Zhang JW, McPherson B, Wu EX. Chronic exposure to broadband noise at moderate sound pressure levels spatially shifts tone-evoked responses in the rat auditory midbrain. Neuroimage 2015; 122:44-51. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.07.065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2015] [Revised: 07/10/2015] [Accepted: 07/24/2015] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
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Gao PP, Zhang JW, Fan SJ, Sanes DH, Wu EX. Auditory midbrain processing is differentially modulated by auditory and visual cortices: An auditory fMRI study. Neuroimage 2015; 123:22-32. [PMID: 26306991 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.08.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2015] [Revised: 08/15/2015] [Accepted: 08/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The cortex contains extensive descending projections, yet the impact of cortical input on brainstem processing remains poorly understood. In the central auditory system, the auditory cortex contains direct and indirect pathways (via brainstem cholinergic cells) to nuclei of the auditory midbrain, called the inferior colliculus (IC). While these projections modulate auditory processing throughout the IC, single neuron recordings have samples from only a small fraction of cells during stimulation of the corticofugal pathway. Furthermore, assessments of cortical feedback have not been extended to sensory modalities other than audition. To address these issues, we devised blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms to measure the sound-evoked responses throughout the rat IC and investigated the effects of bilateral ablation of either auditory or visual cortices. Auditory cortex ablation increased the gain of IC responses to noise stimuli (primarily in the central nucleus of the IC) and decreased response selectivity to forward species-specific vocalizations (versus temporally reversed ones, most prominently in the external cortex of the IC). In contrast, visual cortex ablation decreased the gain and induced a much smaller effect on response selectivity. The results suggest that auditory cortical projections normally exert a large-scale and net suppressive influence on specific IC subnuclei, while visual cortical projections provide a facilitatory influence. Meanwhile, auditory cortical projections enhance the midbrain response selectivity to species-specific vocalizations. We also probed the role of the indirect cholinergic projections in the auditory system in the descending modulation process by pharmacologically blocking muscarinic cholinergic receptors. This manipulation did not affect the gain of IC responses but significantly reduced the response selectivity to vocalizations. The results imply that auditory cortical gain modulation is mediated primarily through direct projections and they point to future investigations of the differential roles of the direct and indirect projections in corticofugal modulation. In summary, our imaging findings demonstrate the large-scale descending influences, from both the auditory and visual cortices, on sound processing in different IC subdivisions. They can guide future studies on the coordinated activity across multiple regions of the auditory network, and its dysfunctions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick P Gao
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Jevin W Zhang
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Shu-Juan Fan
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Dan H Sanes
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, United States
| | - Ed X Wu
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Anatomy, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.
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Park SH, Han PK, Choi SH. Physiological and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using Balanced Steady-state Free Precession. Korean J Radiol 2015; 16:550-9. [PMID: 25995684 PMCID: PMC4435985 DOI: 10.3348/kjr.2015.16.3.550] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2014] [Accepted: 02/05/2015] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) is a highly efficient pulse sequence that is known to provide the highest signal-to-noise ratio per unit time. Recently, bSSFP is getting increasingly popular in both the research and clinical communities. This review will be focusing on the application of the bSSFP technique in the context of probing the physiological and functional information. In the first part of this review, the basic principles of bSSFP are briefly covered. Afterwards, recent developments related to the application of bSSFP, in terms of physiological and functional imaging, are introduced and reviewed. Despite its long development history, bSSFP is still a promising technique that has many potential benefits for obtaining high-resolution physiological and functional images.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sung-Hong Park
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging Lab, Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Korea
| | - Paul Kyu Han
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging Lab, Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Korea
| | - Seung Hong Choi
- Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744, Korea
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Gao PP, Zhang JW, Chan RW, Leong ATL, Wu EX. BOLD fMRI study of ultrahigh frequency encoding in the inferior colliculus. Neuroimage 2015; 114:427-37. [PMID: 25869860 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2014] [Revised: 03/02/2015] [Accepted: 04/02/2015] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Many vertebrates communicate with ultrahigh frequency (UHF) vocalizations to limit auditory detection by predators. The mechanisms underlying the neural encoding of such UHF sounds may provide important insights for understanding neural processing of other complex sounds (e.g. human speeches). In the auditory system, sound frequency is normally encoded topographically as tonotopy, which, however, contains very limited representation of UHFs in many species. Instead, electrophysiological studies suggested that two neural mechanisms, both exploiting the interactions between frequencies, may contribute to UHF processing. Neurons can exhibit excitatory or inhibitory responses to a tone when another UHF tone is presented simultaneously (combination sensitivity). They can also respond to such stimulation if they are tuned to the frequency of the cochlear-generated distortion products of the two tones, e.g. their difference frequency (cochlear distortion). Both mechanisms are present in an early station of the auditory pathway, the midbrain inferior colliculus (IC). Currently, it is unclear how prevalent the two mechanisms are and how they are functionally integrated in encoding UHFs. This study investigated these issues with large-view BOLD fMRI in rat auditory system, particularly the IC. UHF vocalizations (above 40kHz), but not pure tones at similar frequencies (45, 55, 65, 75kHz), evoked robust BOLD responses in multiple auditory nuclei, including the IC, reinforcing the sensitivity of the auditory system to UHFs despite limited representation in tonotopy. Furthermore, BOLD responses were detected in the IC when a pair of UHF pure tones was presented simultaneously (45 & 55kHz, 55 & 65kHz, 45 & 65kHz, 45 & 75kHz). For all four pairs, a cluster of voxels in the ventromedial side always showed the strongest responses, displaying combination sensitivity. Meanwhile, voxels in the dorsolateral side that showed strongest secondary responses to each pair of UHF pure tones also showed the strongest responses to a pure tone at their difference frequency, suggesting that they are sensitive to cochlear distortion. These BOLD fMRI results indicated that combination sensitivity and cochlear distortion are employed by large but spatially distinctive neuron populations in the IC to represent UHFs. Our imaging findings provided insights for understanding sound feature encoding in the early stage of the auditory pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick P Gao
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Jevin W Zhang
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Russell W Chan
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Alex T L Leong
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ed X Wu
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Anatomy, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.
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Lau C, Zhang JW, McPherson B, Pienkowski M, Wu EX. Long-term, passive exposure to non-traumatic acoustic noise induces neural adaptation in the adult rat medial geniculate body and auditory cortex. Neuroimage 2015; 107:1-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.11.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2014] [Revised: 11/12/2014] [Accepted: 11/22/2014] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
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Chan KC, Kancherla S, Fan SJ, Wu EX. Long-term effects of neonatal hypoxia-ischemia on structural and physiological integrity of the eye and visual pathway by multimodal MRI. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2014; 56:1-9. [PMID: 25491295 DOI: 10.1167/iovs.14-14287] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Neonatal hypoxia-ischemia is a major cause of brain damage in infants and may frequently present visual impairments. Although advancements in perinatal care have increased survival, the pathogenesis of hypoxic-ischemic injury and the long-term consequences to the visual system remain unclear. We hypothesized that neonatal hypoxia-ischemia can lead to chronic, MRI-detectable structural and physiological alterations in both the eye and the brain's visual pathways. METHODS Eight Sprague-Dawley rats underwent ligation of the left common carotid artery followed by hypoxia for 2 hours at postnatal day 7. One year later, T2-weighted MRI, gadolinium-enhanced MRI, chromium-enhanced MRI, manganese-enhanced MRI, and diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) of the visual system were evaluated and compared between opposite hemispheres using a 7-Tesla scanner. RESULTS Within the eyeball, systemic gadolinium administration revealed aqueous-vitreous or blood-ocular barrier leakage only in the ipsilesional left eye despite comparable aqueous humor dynamics in the anterior chamber of both eyes. Binocular intravitreal chromium injection showed compromised retinal integrity in the ipsilesional eye. Despite total loss of the ipsilesional visual cortex, both retinocollicular and retinogeniculate pathways projected from the contralesional eye toward ipsilesional visual cortex possessed stronger anterograde manganese transport and less disrupted structural integrity in DTI compared with the opposite hemispheres. CONCLUSIONS High-field, multimodal MRI demonstrated in vivo the long-term structural and physiological deficits in the eye and brain's visual pathways after unilateral neonatal hypoxic-ischemic injury. The remaining retinocollicular and retinogeniculate pathways appeared to be more vulnerable to anterograde degeneration from eye injury than retrograde, transsynaptic degeneration from visual cortex injury.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin C Chan
- UPMC Eye Center, Ophthalmology and Visual Science Research Center, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Swarupa Kancherla
- UPMC Eye Center, Ophthalmology and Visual Science Research Center, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Shu-Juan Fan
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ed X Wu
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
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Chan KC, Fan SJ, Chan RW, Cheng JS, Zhou IY, Wu EX. In vivo visuotopic brain mapping with manganese-enhanced MRI and resting-state functional connectivity MRI. Neuroimage 2014; 90:235-45. [PMID: 24394694 PMCID: PMC3951771 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.12.056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2013] [Revised: 12/16/2013] [Accepted: 12/23/2013] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The rodents are an increasingly important model for understanding the mechanisms of development, plasticity, functional specialization and disease in the visual system. However, limited tools have been available for assessing the structural and functional connectivity of the visual brain network globally, in vivo and longitudinally. There are also ongoing debates on whether functional brain connectivity directly reflects structural brain connectivity. In this study, we explored the feasibility of manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) via 3 different routes of Mn(2+) administration for visuotopic brain mapping and understanding of physiological transport in normal and visually deprived adult rats. In addition, resting-state functional connectivity MRI (RSfcMRI) was performed to evaluate the intrinsic functional network and structural-functional relationships in the corresponding anatomical visual brain connections traced by MEMRI. Upon intravitreal, subcortical, and intracortical Mn(2+) injection, different topographic and layer-specific Mn enhancement patterns could be revealed in the visual cortex and subcortical visual nuclei along retinal, callosal, cortico-subcortical, transsynaptic and intracortical horizontal connections. Loss of visual input upon monocular enucleation to adult rats appeared to reduce interhemispheric polysynaptic Mn(2+) transfer but not intra- or inter-hemispheric monosynaptic Mn(2+) transport after Mn(2+) injection into visual cortex. In normal adults, both structural and functional connectivity by MEMRI and RSfcMRI was stronger interhemispherically between bilateral primary/secondary visual cortex (V1/V2) transition zones (TZ) than between V1/V2 TZ and other cortical nuclei. Intrahemispherically, structural and functional connectivity was stronger between visual cortex and subcortical visual nuclei than between visual cortex and other subcortical nuclei. The current results demonstrated the sensitivity of MEMRI and RSfcMRI for assessing the neuroarchitecture, neurophysiology and structural-functional relationships of the visual brains in vivo. These may possess great potentials for effective monitoring and understanding of the basic anatomical and functional connections in the visual system during development, plasticity, disease, pharmacological interventions and genetic modifications in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin C Chan
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; UPMC Eye Center, Ophthalmology and Visual Science Research Center, Louis J. Fox Center for Vision Restoration, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
| | - Shu-Juan Fan
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Russell W Chan
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Joe S Cheng
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Iris Y Zhou
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ed X Wu
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; Department of Anatomy, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.
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Cheng JS, Gao PP, Zhou IY, Chan RW, Chan Q, Mak HK, Khong PL, Wu EX. Resting-state fMRI using passband balanced steady-state free precession. PLoS One 2014; 9:e91075. [PMID: 24622278 PMCID: PMC3951283 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2013] [Accepted: 02/09/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) has been increasingly used for understanding brain functional architecture. To date, most rsfMRI studies have exploited blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrast using gradient-echo (GE) echo planar imaging (EPI), which can suffer from image distortion and signal dropout due to magnetic susceptibility and inherent long echo time. In this study, the feasibility of passband balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) imaging for distortion-free and high-resolution rsfMRI was investigated. METHODS rsfMRI was performed in humans at 3 T and in rats at 7 T using bSSFP with short repetition time (TR = 4/2.5 ms respectively) in comparison with conventional GE-EPI. Resting-state networks (RSNs) were detected using independent component analysis. RESULTS AND SIGNIFICANCE RSNs derived from bSSFP images were shown to be spatially and spectrally comparable to those derived from GE-EPI images with considerable intra- and inter-subject reproducibility. High-resolution bSSFP images corresponded well to the anatomical images, with RSNs exquisitely co-localized to the gray matter. Furthermore, RSNs at areas of severe susceptibility such as human anterior prefrontal cortex and rat piriform cortex were proved accessible. These findings demonstrated for the first time that passband bSSFP approach can be a promising alternative to GE-EPI for rsfMRI. It offers distortion-free and high-resolution RSNs and is potentially suited for high field studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joe S. Cheng
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Patrick P. Gao
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Iris Y. Zhou
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Russell W. Chan
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | | | - Henry K. Mak
- Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Pek L. Khong
- Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ed X. Wu
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Anatomy, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
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Gao PP, Zhang JW, Cheng JS, Zhou IY, Wu EX. The inferior colliculus is involved in deviant sound detection as revealed by BOLD fMRI. Neuroimage 2014; 91:220-7. [PMID: 24486979 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.01.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2013] [Revised: 01/23/2014] [Accepted: 01/24/2014] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Rapid detection of deviant sounds is a crucial property of the auditory system because it increases the saliency of biologically important, unexpected sounds. The oddball paradigm in which a deviant sound is randomly interspersed among a train of standard sounds has been traditionally used to study this property in mammals. Currently, most human studies have only revealed the involvement of cortical regions in this property. Recently, several animal electrophysiological studies have reported that neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) exhibit reduced responses to a standard sound but restore their responses at the occurrence of a deviant sound (i.e., stimulus-specific adaptation or SSA), suggesting that the IC may also be involved in deviance detection. However, by adopting an invasive method, these animal studies examined only a limited number of neurons. Although SSA appears to be more prominent in the external cortical nuclei of the IC for frequency deviant, a thorough investigation of this property throughout the IC using other deviants and efficient imaging techniques may provide more comprehensive information on this important phenomenon. In this study, blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI with a large field of view was applied to investigate the role of the IC in deviance detection. Two sound tokens that had identical frequency spectrum but temporally inverted profiles were used as the deviant and standard. A control experiment showed that these two sounds evoked the same responses in the IC when they were separately presented. Two oddball experiments showed that the deviant induced higher responses than the standard (by 0.41±0.09% and 0.41±0.10%, respectively). The most activated voxels were in the medial side of the IC in both oddball experiments. The results clearly demonstrated that the IC is involved in deviance detection. BOLD fMRI detection of increased activities in the medial side of the IC to the deviant revealed the highly adaptive nature of a substantial population of neurons in this region, probably those that belong to the rostral or dorsal cortex of the IC. These findings highlighted the complexity of auditory information processing in the IC and may guide future studies of the functional organizations of this subcortical structure.
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Zhou IY, Liang YX, Chan RW, Gao PP, Cheng JS, Hu Y, So KF, Wu EX. Brain resting-state functional MRI connectivity: morphological foundation and plasticity. Neuroimage 2013; 84:1-10. [PMID: 23988270 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.08.037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2013] [Revised: 07/26/2013] [Accepted: 08/16/2013] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the immense ongoing efforts to map brain functional connections and organizations with resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI), the mechanisms governing the temporally coherent rsfMRI signals remain unclear. In particular, there is a lack of direct evidence regarding the morphological foundation and plasticity of these rsfMRI derived connections. In this study, we investigated the role of axonal projections in rsfMRI connectivity and its plasticity. Well-controlled rodent models of complete and posterior corpus callosotomy were longitudinally examined with rsfMRI at 7T in conjunction with intracortical EEG recording and functional MRI tracing of interhemispheric neuronal pathways by manganese (Mn(2+)). At post-callosotomy day 7, significantly decreased interhemispheric rsfMRI connectivity was observed in both groups in the specific cortical areas whose callosal connections were severed. At day 28, the disrupted connectivity was restored in the partial callosotomy group but not in the complete callosotomy group, likely due to the compensation that occurred through the remaining interhemispheric axonal pathways. This restoration - along with the increased intrahemispheric functional connectivity observed in both groups at day 28 - highlights the remarkable adaptation and plasticity in brain rsfMRI connections. These rsfMRI findings were paralleled by the intracortical EEG recording and Mn(2+) tracing results. Taken together, our experimental results directly demonstrate that axonal connections are the indispensable foundation for rsfMRI connectivity and that such functional connectivity can be plastic and dynamically reorganized atop the morphological connections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iris Y Zhou
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
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Lau C, Zhang JW, Cheng JS, Zhou IY, Cheung MM, Wu EX. Noninvasive fMRI investigation of interaural level difference processing in the rat auditory subcortex. PLoS One 2013; 8:e70706. [PMID: 23940631 PMCID: PMC3733930 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2013] [Accepted: 06/21/2013] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective Interaural level difference (ILD) is the difference in sound pressure level (SPL) between the two ears and is one of the key physical cues used by the auditory system in sound localization. Our current understanding of ILD encoding has come primarily from invasive studies of individual structures, which have implicated subcortical structures such as the cochlear nucleus (CN), superior olivary complex (SOC), lateral lemniscus (LL), and inferior colliculus (IC). Noninvasive brain imaging enables studying ILD processing in multiple structures simultaneously. Methods In this study, blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used for the first time to measure changes in the hemodynamic responses in the adult Sprague-Dawley rat subcortex during binaural stimulation with different ILDs. Results and Significance Consistent responses are observed in the CN, SOC, LL, and IC in both hemispheres. Voxel-by-voxel analysis of the change of the response amplitude with ILD indicates statistically significant ILD dependence in dorsal LL, IC, and a region containing parts of the SOC and LL. For all three regions, the larger amplitude response is located in the hemisphere contralateral from the higher SPL stimulus. These findings are supported by region of interest analysis. fMRI shows that ILD dependence occurs in both hemispheres and multiple subcortical levels of the auditory system. This study is the first step towards future studies examining subcortical binaural processing and sound localization in animal models of hearing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Condon Lau
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
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Abstract
This study explored the feasibility of localized manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) via 3 different routes of Mn(2+) administrations for visuotopic brain mapping of retinal, callosal, cortico-subcortical, transsynaptic and horizontal connections in normal adult rats. Upon fractionated intravitreal Mn(2+) injection, Mn enhancements were observed in the contralateral superior colliculus (SC) and lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) by 45-60% at 1-3 days after initial Mn(2+) injection and in the contralateral primary visual cortex (V1) by about 10% at 2-3 days after initial Mn(2+) injection. Direct, single-dose Mn(2+) injection to the LGN resulted in Mn enhancement by 13-21% in V1 and 8-11% in SC of the ipsilateral hemisphere at 8 to 24 hours after Mn(2+) administration. Intracortical, single-dose Mn(2+) injection to the visual cortex resulted in Mn enhancement by 53-65% in ipsilateral LGN, 15-26% in ipsilateral SC, 32-34% in the splenium of corpus callosum and 17-25% in contralateral V1/V2 transition zone at 8 to 24 hours after Mn(2+) administration. Notably, some patchy patterns were apparent near the V1/V2 border of the contralateral hemisphere. Laminar-specific horizontal cortical connections were also observed in the ipsilateral hemisphere. The current results demonstrated the sensitivity of MEMRI for assessing the neuroarchitecture of the visual brains in vivo without depth-limitation, and may possess great potentials for studying the basic neural components and connections in the visual system longitudinally during development, plasticity, pharmacological interventions and genetic modifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin C Chan
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing and the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
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Zhang JW, Lau C, Cheng JS, Xing KK, Zhou IY, Cheung MM, Wu EX. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of sound pressure level encoding in the rat central auditory system. Neuroimage 2013; 65:119-26. [PMID: 23041525 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.09.069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2012] [Revised: 09/27/2012] [Accepted: 09/28/2012] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Intensity is an important physical property of a sound wave and is customarily reported as sound pressure level (SPL). Invasive techniques such as electrical recordings, which typically examine one brain region at a time, have been used to study neuronal encoding of SPL throughout the central auditory system. Non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with large field of view can simultaneously examine multiple auditory structures. We applied fMRI to measure the hemodynamic responses in the rat brain during sound stimulation at seven SPLs over a 72 dB range. This study used a sparse temporal sampling paradigm to reduce the adverse effects of scanner noise. Hemodynamic responses were measured from the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (CIC), external cortex of the inferior colliculus (ECIC), lateral lemniscus (LL), medial geniculate body (MGB), and auditory cortex (AC). BOLD signal changes generally increase significantly (p<0.001) with SPL and the dependence is monotonic in CIC, ECIC, and LL. The ECIC has higher BOLD signal change than CIC and LL at high SPLs. The difference between BOLD signal changes at high and low SPLs is less in the MGB and AC. This suggests that the SPL dependences of the LL and IC are different from those in the MGB and AC and the SPL dependence of the CIC is different from that of the ECIC. These observations are likely related to earlier observations that neurons with firing rates that increase monotonically with SPL are dominant in the CIC, ECIC, and LL while non-monotonic neurons are dominant in the MGB and AC. Further, the IC's SPL dependence measured in this study is very similar to that measured in our earlier study using the continuous imaging method. Therefore, sparse temporal sampling may not be a prerequisite in auditory fMRI studies of the IC.
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Cheung MM, Lau C, Zhou IY, Chan KC, Zhang JW, Fan SJ, Wu EX. High fidelity tonotopic mapping using swept source functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neuroimage 2012; 61:978-86. [PMID: 22445952 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2011] [Revised: 03/05/2012] [Accepted: 03/06/2012] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Tonotopy, the topographic encoding of sound frequency, is the fundamental property of the auditory system. Invasive techniques lack the spatial coverage or frequency resolution to rigorously investigate tonotopy. Conventional auditory fMRI is corrupted by significant image distortion, sporadic acoustic noise and inadequate frequency resolution. We developed an efficient and high fidelity auditory fMRI method that integrates continuous frequency sweeping stimulus, distortion free MRI sequence with stable scanner noise and Fourier analysis. We demonstrated this swept source imaging (SSI) in the rat inferior colliculus and obtained tonotopic maps with ~2 kHz resolution and 40 kHz bandwidth. The results were vastly superior to those obtained by conventional fMRI mapping approach and in excellent agreement with invasive findings. We applied SSI to examine tonotopic injury following developmental noise exposure and observed that the tonotopic organization was significantly disrupted. With SSI, we also observed the subtle effects of sound pressure level on tonotopic maps, reflecting the complex neuronal responses associated with asymmetric tuning curves. This in vivo and noninvasive technique will greatly facilitate future investigation of tonotopic plasticity and disorders and auditory information processing. SSI can also be adapted to study topographic organization in other sensory systems such as retinotopy and somatotopy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew M Cheung
- Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China
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