[Functional MRI of higher brain function with gradient echo on clinical MR unit].

MR imaging of brain function has been successfully performed at 1.5 T clinical MR unit. In the early studies, functional MRI were performed with simple stimulation such as visual and motor. Recently, many investigators have attempted to demonstrate the specific brain localization of higher brain functions such as memory, imagination, language and so on. In this study, we attempted the functional MRI for motor and word imagination with gradient echo sequences on clinical MR unit. In our experiences, motor cortex was activated on motor imagination task and Broca area was activated on word imagination task, respectively. We demonstrated the higher brain functions were able to be demonstrated on clinical MR unit with gradient echo sequences.