A new MRI subject position to explore simultaneous BOLD oscillations of the brain and the body

I-Ning Tang; Tun Jao; Yun-An Huang; Chia-Wei Li; Ya-Chih Yu; Jyh-Horng Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.108829

A new MRI subject position to explore simultaneous BOLD oscillations of the brain and the body

J Neurosci Methods. 2020 Oct 1:344:108829. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.108829. Epub 2020 Jul 11.

Authors

I-Ning Tang¹, Tun Jao², Yun-An Huang³, Chia-Wei Li⁴, Ya-Chih Yu³, Jyh-Horng Chen⁵

Affiliations

¹ Interdisciplinary MRI/MRS Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Interdisciplinary MRI/MRS Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁴ Interdisciplinary MRI/MRS Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Radiology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁵ Interdisciplinary MRI/MRS Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Imaging Center for Integrated Body, Mind and Culture Research, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: jhchen@ntu.edu.tw.

PMID: 32663550
DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.108829

Abstract

Background: Anatomically and physiologically, there is strong relationship between the brain and body. A new MRI platform covering both the brain and the limb would be beneficial for a more thorough understanding of the brain-body interactions.

New method: A new arm-over-head (AOH) position was developed to collect MRI of the brain and one arm simultaneously. Subject's tolerability and SNR of both the brain and limb under a serial of seven different TR (250-3000 ms) were tested. Then, blocked motor imagery tasks were performed to test the possible brain-body oscillations.

Results: The new MRI position provided structural images with good quality, and the AOH position had the best SNR under TR 3000 ms (p = 0.03 for the brain; p = 0.064 for the limb). Then, by using both hypothesis-free independent component analysis (ICA) and a priori seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis, it is demonstrated during motionless motor imagery tasks there existed possible brain-body BOLD oscillations connecting especially arm flexors to default mode, vision, and sensorimotor networks. The FC appeared at network density as low as 5%.

Comparison with existing methods: We have developed a new MRI subject position to explore the possibilities of more extensive neuronal and physiological networks.

Conclusions: The results of this preliminary experiment indicate that functional brain networks might extend outside the brain. A bottom-up circulatory effect might explain this phenomenon. Nonetheless, considering the mechanism of neural top-down control and the nature of complex brain networks, the existence of a more extensive whole-body functional network is rational and possible.

Keywords: Arm-Over-Head (AOH) position; BOLD oscillations; Brain networks; FMRI; Motor imagery; Physiological networks.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Brain Mapping*
Brain* / diagnostic imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging