Biomedical subjects

Pierre-Francois Van de Moortele

Publications and source records attributed to Pierre-Francois Van de Moortele.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Sustained neuronal activation raises oxidative metabolism to a new steady-state level: evidence from 1H NMR spectroscopy in the human visual cortex.

To date, functional 1H NMR spectroscopy has been utilized to report the time courses of few metabolites, primarily lactate. Benefiting from the sensitivity offered by ultra-high magnetic field (7 T), the concentrations of 17 metabolites were measured in the human visual cortex during two paradigms of visual stimulation lasting 5.3 and 10.6 mins. Significant concentration changes of approximately 0.2 micromol/g were observed for several metabolites: lactate increased by 23%+/-5% (P<0.0005), glutamate increased by 3%+/-1% (P<0.01), whereas aspartate decreased by 15%+/-6% (P<0.05). Glucose concentration also manifested a tendency to decrease during activation periods. The lactate concentration reached the new steady-state level within the first minute of activation and came back to baseline only after the stimulus ended. The changes of the concentration of metabolites implied a rise in oxidative metabolism to a new steady-state level during activation and indicated that amino-acid homeostasis is affected by physiological stimulation, likely because of an increased flux through the malate-aspartate shuttle.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Application of parallel imaging to fMRI at 7 Tesla utilizing a high 1D reduction factor.

Gradient-echo EPI, blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) using parallel imaging (PI) is demonstrated at 7 Tesla with 16 channels, a fourfold 1D reduction factor (R), and fourfold maximal aliasing. The resultant activation detection in finger-tapping fMRI studies was robust, in full agreement with expected activation patterns based on prior knowledge, and with functional maps generated from full field of view (FOV) coverage of k-space using segmented acquisition. In all aspects the functional maps acquired with PI outperformed segmented coverage of full k-space. With a 1D R of 4, fMRI activation based on PI had higher statistical significance, up to 1.6-fold in an individual case and 1.25+/-.25 (SD) fold when averaged over six studies, compared to four-segment/full-FOV data in which the square root R reduction in the image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) due to k-space undersampling was compensated for by acquiring additional repetitions of the undersampled k-space. When this compensation for loss in SNR was not performed, the effect of PI was determined by the ratio of physiologically induced vs. intrinsic (thermal) noise in the fMRI time series and the extent to which physiological "noise" was amplified by the use of segmentation in the full-FOV data. The results demonstrate that PI is particularly beneficial at this ultrahigh field strength, where both the intrinsic image SNR and temporal signal fluctuations due to physiological processes are large.

Brain↗

PubMed2006

Potential and feasibility of parallel MRI at high field.

This survey focuses on the fusion of two major lines of recent progress in MRI methodology: parallel imaging with receiver coil arrays and the transition to high and ultra-high field strength for human applications. As discussed in this paper, combining the two developments has vast potential due to multiple specific synergies. First, parallel acquisition and high field are highly complementary in terms of their individual advantages and downsides. As a consequence, the joint approach generally offers enhanced flexibility in the design of scanning strategies. Second, increasing resonance frequency changes the electrodynamics of the MR signal in such a way that parallel imaging becomes more effective in large objects. The underlying conceptual and theoretical considerations are reviewed in detail. In further sections, technical challenges and practical aspects are discussed. The feasibility of parallel MRI at ultra-high field is illustrated by current results of parallel human MRI at 7 T.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Motor control in basal ganglia circuits using fMRI and brain atlas approaches.

In this study, we examined how the motor, premotor and associative basal ganglia territories process movement parameters such as the complexity and the frequency of movement. Twelve right-handed volunteers were studied using EPI BOLD contrast (3 T) while performing audio-paced finger tapping tasks designed to differentiate basal ganglia territories. Tasks varied movement complexity (repetitive index tapping, simple sequence of finger movements and complex sequence of 10 moves) and frequency (from 0.5 to 3 Hz). Activation maps were coregistered onto a 3-D brain atlas derived from post-mortem brains. Three main patterns of activation were observed. In the posterior putamen and the sensorimotor cortex, signal increased with movement frequency but not with movement complexity. In premotor areas, the anterior putamen and the ventral posterolateral thalamus, signal increased regularly with increasing movement frequency and complexity. In rostral frontal areas, the caudate nucleus, the subthalamic nucleus and the ventral anterior/ventrolateral thalamus, signal increased mainly during the complex task and the high frequency task (3 Hz). These data show the different roles of motor, premotor and associative basal ganglia circuits in the processing of motor-related operations and suggest that activation can be precisely located within the entire circuitry of the basal ganglia.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Transmit and receive transmission line arrays for 7 Tesla parallel imaging.

Transceive array coils, capable of RF transmission and independent signal reception, were developed for parallel, 1H imaging applications in the human head at 7 T (300 MHz). The coils combine the advantages of high-frequency properties of transmission lines with classic MR coil design. Because of the short wavelength at the 1H frequency at 300 MHz, these coils were straightforward to build and decouple. The sensitivity profiles of individual coils were highly asymmetric, as expected at this high frequency; however, the summed images from all coils were relatively uniform over the whole brain. Data were obtained with four- and eight-channel transceive arrays built using a loop configuration and compared to arrays built from straight stripline transmission lines. With both the four- and the eight-channel arrays, parallel imaging with sensitivity encoding with high reduction numbers was feasible at 7 T in the human head. A one-dimensional reduction factor of 4 was robustly achieved with an average g value of 1.25 with the eight-channel transmit/receive coils.

Brain↗

PubMed2004

Motor execution and imagination networks in post-stroke dystonia.

Reorganization of motor execution and imagination networks was studied in six patients with unilateral dystonia secondary to a subcortical stroke and compared with seven control subjects using fMRI. Patients performed imagined and real auditory-cued hand movements. Movements of the dystonic hand resulted in overactivity in bilateral motor, premotor, and prefrontal cortex, insula, precuneus, and cerebellum, in parietal areas and the striatum contralateral to the lesion. Movements of the unaffected hand resulted in overactivity in bilateral preSMA, prefrontal, and parietal areas, insula and cerebellum, the ipsilateral premotor cortex and the contralateral striatum to the lesion. Mental representation of movements with each hand resulted in overactivity in bilateral parietal, premotor and prefrontal areas. These results suggest that execution and mental representation of movement are altered in these patients.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Parallel imaging performance as a function of field strength--an experimental investigation using electrodynamic scaling.

In this work, the dependence of parallel MRI performance on main magnetic field strength is experimentally investigated. Using the general framework of electrodynamic scaling, the B0-dependent behavior of the relevant radiofrequency fields at a single physical field strength of 7 T is studied. In the chosen implementation this is accomplished by adjusting the permittivity and conductivity of a homogeneous spherical phantom. With different mixing ratios of decane, ethanol, purified water, N-methylformamide, and sodium chloride, field strengths in the range of 1.5 to 11.5 T are mimicked. Based on sensitivity maps of an eight-coil receiver array, the field-dependent performance of parallel imaging is assessed in terms of the geometry factor g, which reflects noise enhancement in parallel imaging reconstruction. At low field strengths the SNR penalty was nearly independent of B0 and favorably low for 1D reduction factors up to between 3 and 4. At higher field strengths the transition between favorable and prohibitive parallel imaging conditions was found to shift toward higher feasible reduction factors. These findings are in good agreement with previous theoretical predictions. From this agreement it is concluded that parallel MRI at high B0 benefits specifically from onsetting far-field behavior of the involved radiofrequency fields.

Electromagnetic Fields↗

PubMed2002

Correction of physiologically induced global off-resonance effects in dynamic echo-planar and spiral functional imaging.

In functional magnetic resonance imaging, a rapid method such as echo-planar (EPI) or spiral is used to collect a dynamic series of images. These techniques are sensitive to changes in resonance frequency which can arise from respiration and are more significant at high magnetic fields. To decrease the noise from respiration-induced phase and frequency fluctuations, a simple correction of the "dynamic off-resonance in k-space" (DORK) was developed. The correction uses phase information from the center of k-space and a navigator echo and is illustrated with dynamic scans of single-shot and segmented EPI and, for the first time, spiral imaging of the human brain at 7 T. Image noise in the respiratory spectrum was measured with an edge operator. The DORK correction significantly reduced respiration-induced noise (image shift for EPI, blurring for spiral, ghosting for segmented acquisition). While spiral imaging was found to exhibit less noise than EPI before correction, the residual noise after the DORK correction was comparable. The correction is simple to apply and can correct for other sources of frequency drift and fluctuations in dynamic imaging.

Adult↗