Simultaneous metabolic and functional imaging of the brain using SPICE

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Metabolic Imaging
• Functional MRI

Background:

• Simultaneous high-resolution mapping of brain function and metabolism is crucial for understanding neurological disorders.
• Current techniques often face limitations in spatial resolution and simultaneous acquisition capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel encoding and reconstruction scheme for simultaneous high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI) and MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI).
• To enable concurrent acquisition of metabolic and functional brain information with improved spatial resolution.

Main Methods:

• An interleaved acquisition scheme was designed for fMRI and MRSI using echo volume and echo-planar spectroscopic imaging trajectories.
• The method utilizes free induction decay signals with ultrashort TE, short TR, and sparse k-space sampling.
• A subspace-based reconstruction method was employed, leveraging complementary fMRI and MRSI data for improved robustness against motion and field variations.

Main Results:

• Simultaneous in-vivo acquisition of metabolic and functional brain information was achieved in healthy human subjects.
• High spatial resolutions were obtained: 3.0 × 3.0 × 1.8 mm³ for fMRI, 1.9 × 2.5 × 3.0 mm³ for MRSI, and 1.9 × 1.9 × 1.8 mm³ for quantitative susceptibility maps.
• The method demonstrated feasibility within a 6.5-minute scan time.

Conclusions:

• The developed method enables simultaneous high-resolution mapping of brain function and metabolism.
• The approach offers improved spatial resolution and synergistic image reconstruction for neuroimaging.
• This technique holds promise for advancing the study of brain function and metabolism in vivo.