ASL-BIDS, the brain imaging data structure extension for arterial spin labeling.

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is a non-invasive MRI technique that allows for quantitative measurement of cerebral perfusion. Incomplete or inaccurate reporting of acquisition parameters complicates quantification, analysis, and sharing of ASL data, particularly for studies across multiple sites, platforms, and ASL methods. There is a strong need for standardization of ASL data storage, including acquisition metadata.

ExploreASL: An image processing pipeline for multi-center ASL perfusion MRI studies.

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) has undergone significant development since its inception, with a focus on improving standardization and reproducibility of its acquisition and quantification. In a community-wide effort towards robust and reproducible clinical ASL image processing, we developed the software package ExploreASL, allowing standardized analyses across centers and scanners. The procedures used in ExploreASL capitalize on published image processing advancements and address the challenges of multi-center datasets with scanner-specific processing and artifact reduction to limit patient exclusion.

Concurrent Cortical Representations of Function- and Size-Related Object Affordances: An fMRI Study.

Previous work has shown that the perception of a graspable object may automatically potentiate actions that are tailored to specific action-related features of the object (e.g., its size) and may be related to its immediate grasping as well as to its long-term, functional use.

Brain activity during phonation in healthy female singers with supraglottic compression: an fMRI pilot study.

This pilot study evaluated the usability of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect brain activation during phonation in healthy female singers with supraglottic compression. Four healthy female classical singers (mean age: 26 years) participated in the study. All subjects had normal vocal folds and vocal characteristics and showed supraglottic compression.

Brain Activity During Phonation in Women With Muscle Tension Dysphonia: An fMRI Study.

Objectives: The main objectives of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study are (1) to investigate brain activity during phonation in women with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) in comparison with healthy controls; and (2) to explain the neurophysiological mechanism of laryngeal hyperfunction/tension during phonation in patients with MTD.

Methods: Ten women with MTD and fifteen healthy women participated in this study. The fMRI experiment was carried out using a block design paradigm.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Brain Activity Associated With Pitch Adaptation During Phonation in Healthy Women Without Voice Disorders.

Objectives: This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the brain activity associated with pitch adaptation during phonation in healthy women without voice disorders.

Study Design: This is an interventional prospective study.

Methods: Sixteen healthy women (mean age: 24.

Brachial plexus 3D reconstruction from MRI with dissection validation: a baseline study for clinical applications.

Purpose: The present study aimed to establish a baseline for detailed 3D brachial plexus reconstruction from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Concretely, the goal was to determine the individual brachial plexus anatomy with maximum detail and accuracy achievable, as yet irrespective of whether the methods used could be economically and practically applied in the clinical setting.

Materials And Methods: Six embalmed cadavers were randomly taken for MRI imaging of the brachial plexus.

MR pulse wave velocity increases with age faster in the thoracic aorta than in the abdominal aorta.

Purpose: To assess the difference between thoracic and abdominal aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) in apparently healthy subjects including young adults to elderly subjects.

Materials And Methods: We performed PWV and distensibility measurements and analysis of thoracic and abdominal aortic segments in 96 apparently normal subjects aged 20-80 years with magnetic resonance (MR). Both unadjusted correlation and General Linear Model (GLM) analysis of log-transformed PWV (thoracic and abdominal aorta) and distensibility (four aortic cross-sections) were performed.

An anatomically validated brachial plexus contouring method for intensity modulated radiation therapy planning.

Purpose: To develop contouring guidelines for the brachial plexus (BP) using anatomically validated cadaver datasets. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) were used to obtain detailed visualizations of the BP region, with the goal of achieving maximal inclusion of the actual BP in a small contoured volume while also accommodating for anatomic variations.

Methods And Materials: CT and MRI were obtained for 8 cadavers positioned for intensity modulated radiation therapy.

Human left ventral premotor cortex mediates matching of hand posture to object use.

Visuomotor transformations for grasping have been associated with a fronto-parietal network in the monkey brain. The human homologue of the parietal monkey region (AIP) has been identified as the anterior part of the intraparietal sulcus (aIPS), whereas the putative human equivalent of the monkey frontal region (F5) is located in the ventral part of the premotor cortex (vPMC). Results from animal studies suggest that monkey F5 is involved in the selection of appropriate hand postures relative to the constraints of the task.

Influence of perspective on the neural correlates of motor resonance during natural action observation.

We investigated the neural correlates of motor resonance during the observation of natural transitive actions and determined how the observer's perspective modulates the neural activation. Seventeen right-handed participants observed right and left hand tool grasping actions from a first-person or third-person perspective while undergoing fMRI. A two-factorial analysis of variance over the parietal region revealed no main effects of hand identity or perspective, but unveiled a hand by perspective interaction effect.

Praxis and language are linked: evidence from co-lateralization in individuals with atypical language dominance.

We determined the neural correlates of word generation and tool use pantomiming in healthy subjects with typical (n=10) or atypical (n=10) language dominance to investigate similarities in response pattern and hemispheric specialization between language and praxis. All typical language dominant volunteers also revealed left hemisphere changes during tool use pantomiming in prefrontal, premotor, and posterior parietal regions. All atypical language dominant participants displayed right hemisphere engagement for tool use.

Quantifying hemodynamic refractory bold effects in normal subjects at the single-subject level using an inverse logit fitting procedure.

Purpose: To evaluate whether hemodynamic refractory effects provoked by repeated visual stimulation can be detected and quantified at the single-subject level using a recently described hemodynamic response function (HRF) fitting algorithm.

Materials And Methods: Hemodynamic refractory effects were induced with an easily applicable functional MRI (fMRI) paradigm. A fitting method with inverse logit (IL) functions was applied to quantify net HRFs at the single-subject level with three interstimulus intervals (ISI; 1, 2, and 6 s).

Absence of haemodynamic refractory effects in patients with migraine without aura: an interictal fMRI study.

Background: In healthy controls, haemodynamic refractory effects are observed with blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI): the haemodynamic response function (HRF) to the second stimulus in a pair of stimuli with short interstimulus interval (ISI) shows a decreased amplitude and an increased time-to-peak. We hypothesize that there may be interictal haemodynamic abnormalities in migraineurs.

Methods: An event-related fMRI design with paired face stimuli and varying ISIs was used to measure interictal HRFs in the face recognition area of patients with migraine without aura (MwoA) and controls.

Cerebral lateralization of praxis in right- and left-handedness: same pattern, different strength.

We aimed to investigate the effect of hand effector and handedness on the cerebral lateralization of pantomiming learned movements. Fourteen right-handed and 14 left-handed volunteers performed unimanual and bimanual tool-use pantomimes with their dominant or nondominant hand during fMRI. A left hemispheric lateralization was observed in the right- and left-handed group regardless of which hand(s) performed the task.

Does visual cortex lactate increase following photic stimulation in migraine without aura patients? A functional (1)H-MRS study.

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) has been used in a number of studies to assess noninvasively the temporal changes of lactate (Lac) in the activated human brain. Migraine neurobiology involves lack of cortical habituation to repetitive stimuli and a mitochondrial component has been put forward. Our group has recently demonstrated a reduction in the high-energy phosphates adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and phosphocreatine (PCr) in the occipital lobe of migraine without aura (MwoA) patients, at least in a subgroup, in a phosphorus MRS ((31)P-MRS) study.

Neural correlates of pantomiming familiar and unfamiliar tools: action semantics versus mechanical problem solving?

This study aims to reveal the neural correlates of planning and executing tool use pantomimes and explores the brain's response to pantomiming the use of unfamiliar tools. Sixteen right-handed volunteers planned and executed pantomimes of equally graspable familiar and unfamiliar tools while undergoing fMRI. During the planning of these pantomimes, we found bilateral temporo-occipital and predominantly left hemispheric frontal and parietal activation.

Differentiation between deep and superficial fibers of the lumbar multifidus by magnetic resonance imaging.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differentiation in muscle tissue characteristics and recruitment between the deep and superficial multifidus muscle by magnetic resonance imaging. The multifidus is a very complex muscle in which a superficial and deep component can be differentiated from an anatomical, biomechanical, histological and neuromotorial point of view. To date, the histological evidence is limited to low back pain patients undergoing surgery and cadavers.

Tool responsive regions in the posterior parietal cortex: effect of differences in motor goal and target object during imagined transitive movements.

Neuroanatomical and functional studies have proposed a functional segregation of the human dorsal stream into a dorso-dorsal pathway, believed to serve as an object-independent stream involved with on-line control of action, and a ventro-dorsal pathway that provides conceptual input guiding the functional manipulation of objects. We aim to evaluate whether the inferior parietal cortex deals specifically with action reliant on stored knowledge. Fifteen right-handed, normal volunteers varied the intention of their transitive movements by imagining their dominant arm and hand pointing to, grasping to move, grasping to use, or grasping and using three-dimensional representations of target objects depicting graspable neutral shapes, unfamiliar tools, and familiar tools.

Changes in lumbar muscle activity because of induced muscle pain evaluated by muscle functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Study Design: Experimental study of changes in muscle recruitment during trunk extension exercise at 40% of the repetition maximum, because of induced muscle pain.

Objective: To investigate the effect of lumbar muscle pain on muscle activity of the trunk muscles using muscle functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Summary Of Background Data: Changed muscle recruitment in patients has an important impact on the etiology and recurrence of low back pain.

Comparison between functional magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 and 3 Tesla: effect of increased field strength on 4 paradigms used during presurgical work-up.

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the benefit of 3 T compared with 1.5 T during presurgical functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Materials And Methods: Six participants performed a motor, a visual, and 2 language paradigms both at 1.

Acoustic features of palilalia: a case study.

While a number of authors have suggested that patients with palilalia typically show a tendency to repeat words or phrases with an increasing rate, others maintain that an accelerating speech rate is not essential. The present paper reports the results of an instrumental analysis of the reiterations in a 60-year-old man with palilalia. Results indicate that there is not necessarily an increasing rapidity in palilalia.

Lateralized anterior mesiotemporal lobe activation: semirandom functional MR imaging encoding paradigm in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy--initial experience.

Purpose: To prospectively demonstrate anterior mesiotemporal lobe (MTL) activation in healthy volunteers by using a semirandom memory-encoding paradigm and to prospectively compare lateralized functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging activation with intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP) memory test results in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) who were scheduled to undergo surgery.

Materials And Methods: The study was approved by a local ethics committee, and written informed consent was obtained from all subjects. Eight healthy volunteers and 18 patients with TLE who were scheduled for surgery were included in the functional MR imaging study involving the use of a memory-encoding paradigm with variable epoch lengths.

Stimulus pacing affects the activation of the medial temporal lobe during a semantic classification task: an fMRI study.

Our purpose was to explore the influence of stimulus pacing in blocked functional MRI studies on the activation pattern elicited by a semantic retrieval task. Twenty-two participants performed both a fixed-paced and a self-paced functional MR imaging experiment in which a semantic categorization (animal/object) task was contrasted with a perceptual (small/capital letter string) categorization task. Group and single-subject ROI analyses were computed.