Temporal resolving power of perfusion- and BOLD-based event-related functional MRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on both perfusion and blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrasts has been widely applied in spatiotemporal mapping of the human brain function. Temporal resolving power of fMRI is limited by the smoothed hemodynamic response function dispersed from the neuronal activity. In this study, temporal modulation transfer functions were utilized to quantify the resolving powers of perfusion and BOLD fMR signals in time domain. The impulse response function was determined using brief visual stimulations and event-related image acquisition schemes. An important feature of arterial spin labeling techniques is that quantitative perfusion and BOLD signals could be simultaneously acquired. This simultaneous BOLD response may arise from signals that are more proximal to capillary beds, and its temporal resolution may be different from that of the typical BOLD response. Therefore, we assessed and compared the temporal resolving capabilities of perfusion, simultaneous BOLD, and the typical BOLD response obtained from the gradient echo EPI pulse sequence. Full-width-at-half-maximums of perfusion and simultaneous BOLD measurements were significantly smaller than that of BOLD ones (4.3+/- 0.6 s vs 5.5 +/- 0.9 s, p<0.02 and 4.7 +/- 1.3 s vs 5.5 +/- 0.9 s, p<0.01, respectively). The corresponding temporal resolving powers of perfusion and simultaneous BOLD signals were statistically better than that of BOLD signals (0.23 +/- 0.03 Hz vs 0.17 +/- 0.02 Hz, p<0.01 and 0.21 +/- 0.04 Hz vs 0.17 +/- 0.02 Hz, p<0.01, respectively). Our results showed that the typical BOLD response was significantly smoothed from the perfusion response, thus resulting in a degraded temporal resolving power. However, results from the simultaneous BOLD and perfusion measurements were not significantly different. Biophysical implications of the experimental outcomes were further investigated using a computer simulation based on the Balloon model. By fitting the measured data into the model, an apparently longer transit time was obtained for the typical BOLD signal (1.7 s), comparing to that for the simultaneous BOLD one (1.2 s). Therefore, the simultaneous BOLD signal was regarded as less susceptible to the variations from local draining veins. Combining the simulation result with the significantly discrepant resolving powers between the two BOLD signals, we speculated that the blurred effects from large vessels played a predominant role that further reduced the temporal resolution of the BOLD-based fMRI from the perfusion response.