322,913 research outputs found
The BOLD MRI response of the brain to alterations in arterial blood pressure
No full textThe impact of blood pressure changes on cerebral blood flow is an important area of investigation. The cerebral autoregulation mechanism acts to maintain blood supply to the brain, despite changes in blood pressure. Blood flow alterations are closely linked to neuronal activation, and this activity can be visualised using blood oxygenation level dependent magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD MRI) – functional MRI. The aim of this project is to investigate the effect of dynamic blood pressure stimuli on the BOLD MRI signal in the brain. Two blood pressure stimuli were employed; thigh cuff deflation and the Valsalva manoeuvre. BOLD MRI signal changes were measured throughout both challenges. Arterial and venous blood pressure and tympanic membrane displacement (TMD) measurements were also made during these challenges. Blood pressure data was used to drive two linked models. The first model represented cerebral vascular physiology (Ursino) and this fed into a second model (Buxton), which predicted the resulting BOLD signal changes. This allowed comparison with experimental BOLD data. TMD data was also compared to intracranial pressure changes predicted by the Ursino model. The experimental BOLD data was found to agree reasonably well with the BOLD signal changes predicted by the modelling. BOLD signal changes are most influenced by deoxyhaemoglobin changes, predominantly as a result of blood flow alterations during the blood pressure challenges, which are not immediately compensated for by the autoregulation mechanism. TMD changes did not reflect intracranial pressure changes predicted by the modelling. In conclusion, if such blood pressure changes do occur during a functional MRI experiment, they may cause changes in the BOLD signal that are not due to neuronal activation. These signal changes may be employed to investigate the cerebral autoregulation mechanism across the brain, or to correct for inaccuracies in functional MRI data in patients with impaired cerebral autoregulatio
Dynamic BOLD functional connectivity in humans and its electrophysiological correlates
No full textNeural oscillations subserve many human perceptual and cognitive operations. Accordingly, brain functional connectivity is not static in time, but fluctuates dynamically following the synchronization and desynchronization of neural populations. This dynamic functional connectivity has recently been demonstrated in spontaneous fluctuations of the Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent (BOLD) signal, measured with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). We analyzed temporal fluctuations in BOLD connectivity and their electrophysiological correlates, by means of long (≈50 min) joint electroencephalographic (EEG) and fMRI recordings obtained from two populations: 15 awake subjects and 13 subjects undergoing vigilance transitions. We identified positive and negative correlations between EEG spectral power (extracted from electrodes covering different scalp regions) and fMRI BOLD connectivity in a network of 90 cortical and subcortical regions (with millimeter spatial resolution). In particular, increased alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (15-30 Hz) power were related to decreased functional connectivity, whereas gamma (30-60 Hz) power correlated positively with BOLD connectivity between specific brain regions. These patterns were altered for subjects undergoing vigilance changes, with slower oscillations being correlated with functional connectivity increases. Dynamic BOLD functional connectivity was reflected in the fluctuations of graph theoretical indices of network structure, with changes in frontal and central alpha power correlating with average path length. Our results strongly suggest that fluctuations of BOLD functional connectivity have a neurophysiological origin. Positive correlations with gamma can be interpreted as facilitating increased BOLD connectivity needed to integrate brain regions for cognitive performance. Negative correlations with alpha suggest a temporary functional weakening of local and long-range connectivity, associated with an idling state
An investigation of the relationship between BOLD and perfusion signal changes during epileptic generalised spike wave activity
No full textIn pathological conditions interpretation of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results can be difficult. This is due to a reliance on the assumed coupling between neuronal activity and changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) and oxygenation. We wanted to investigate the coupling between blood oxygen level dependant contrast (BOLD) and CBF time courses in epilepsy patients with generalised spike wave activity (GSW) to better understand the underlying mechanisms behind the EEG-fMRI signal changes observed, especially in regions of negative BOLD response (NBR). Four patients with frequent GSW were scanned with simultaneous electroencephalographic (EEG)-fMRI with BOLD and arterial spin labeling (ASL) sequences. We examined the relationship between simultaneous CBF and BOLD measurements by looking at the correlation of the two signals in terms of percentage signal change on a voxel-by-voxel basis. This method is not reliant on coincident activation. BOLD and CBF were positively correlated in patients with epilepsy during background EEG activity and GSW. The subject average value of the ΔCBF/ΔBOLD slope lay between +19 and +36 and also showed spatial variation which could indicate areas with altered vascular response. There was not a significant difference between ΔCBF/ΔBOLD during GSW, suggesting that neurovascular coupling to BOLD signal is generally maintained between states and, in particular, within areas of NBR
The long and short of it. Being the recollections and reminiscences of Edna Bold
No full textThe Burnett Archive of Working Class Autobiographies was gathered together by John Burnett, David Vincent and David Mayall whilst compiling their three volumes annotated bibliography, "The Autobiography of the Working Class" (Harvester Press, 1984-1989). This book includes descriptions of unpublished autobiographies and indicates their locations. Excerpts from some of the autobiographies have been published in "Destiny obscure: autobiographies of childhood, education, and family from the1820s to the 1920s", edited by John Burnett (Routledge 1994 and A. Lane, 1982). The authors "sought to identify not only the large numbers of printed works scattered in various local history libraries and record offices, but also extant private memoirs, many of which remain hidden in family attics, known only to the author and a handful of relatives" (Introduction to vol.1, p. xxix). The criteria for inclusion were: the writers were working class for at least part of their lives; they wrote in English; and they lived for some time in England, Scotland or Wales between 1790 and 1945. John Burnett was professor of social history at Brunel University from 1972 to 1990.The memoirs of Edna Bold, born in Manchester (1904). Bold supplies a detailed account of childhood games, leisure and schooling. Bold also comments on family and ancestry, sex education, Ancoats Brotherhood and L.S. Lowry. The memoir contains additional reflections on 1960s youth culture and popular music
From Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signals to brain temperature maps
No full textA theoretical framework is presented for converting Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) images to temperature maps, based on the idea that disproportional local changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) as compared with cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption (CMRO2) during functional brain activity, lead to both brain temperature changes and the BOLD effect. Using an oxygen limitation model and a BOLD signal model we obtain a transcendental equation relating CBF and CMRO2 changes with the corresponding BOLD signal, which is solved in terms of the Lambert W function. Inserting this result in the dynamic bio-heat equation describing the rate of temperature changes in the brain, we obtain a non autonomous ordinary differential equation that depends on the BOLD response, which is solved numerically for each brain voxel. In order to test the method, temperature maps obtained from a real BOLD dataset are calculated showing temperature variations in the range: (-0.15, 0.1) which is consistent with experimental results. The method could find potential clinical uses as it is an improvement over conventional methods which require invasive probes and can record only few locations simultaneously. Interestingly, the statistical analysis revealed that significant temperature variations are more localized than BOLD activations. This seems to exclude the use of temperature maps for mapping neuronal activity as areas where it is well known that electrical activity occurs (such as V5 bilaterally) are not activated in the obtained maps. But it also opens questions about the nature of the information processing and the underlying vascular network in visual areas that give rise to this result
Noncanonical spike-related BOLD responses in focal epilepsy
No full textTill now, most studies of the Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent (BOLD) response to interictal epileptic discharges (IED) have assumed that its time course matches closely to that of brief physiological stimuli, commonly called the canonical event-related haemodynamic response function (canonical HRF). Analyses based on that assumption have produced significant response patterns that are generally concordant with prior electroclinical data. In this work, we used a more flexible model of the event-related response, a Fourier basis set, to investigate the presence of other responses in relation to individual IED in 30 experiments in patients with focal epilepsy. We found significant responses that had a noncanonical time course in 37% of cases, compared with 40% for the conventional, canonical HRF-based approach. In two cases, the Fourier analysis suggested activations where the conventional model did not. The noncanonical activations were almost always remote from the presumed generator of epileptiform activity. In the majority of cases with noncanonical responses, the noncanonical responses in single-voxel clusters were suggestive of artifacts. We did not find evidence for IED-related noncanonical HRFs arising from areas of pathology, suggesting that the BOLD response to IED is primarily canonical. Noncanonical responses may represent a number of phenomena, including artefacts and propagated epileptiform activity
Boosting BOLD fMRI by K-Space density weighted echo planar imaging
No full textFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become a powerful and influential method to non-invasively study neuronal brain activity. For this purpose, the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) effect is most widely used. T2* weighted echo planar imaging (EPI) is BOLD sensitive and the prevailing fMRI acquisition technique. Here, we present an alternative to its standard Cartesian recordings, i.e. k-space density weighted EPI, which is expected to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in fMRI data. Based on in vitro and in vivo pilot measurements, we show that fMRI by k-space density weighted EPI is feasible and that this new acquisition technique in fact boosted spatial and temporal SNR as well as the detection of local fMRI activations. Spatial resolution, spatial response function and echo time were identical for density weighted and conventional Cartesian EPI. The signal-to-noise ratio gain of density weighting can improve activation detection and has the potential to further increase the sensitivity of fMRI investigations
Value Replacement Therapy: Imagining urban technologies otherwise
No full textDesign Conceptualization and Communicatio
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Comparison between Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Two Techniques Compared in the Study of Brain Activity
No full textreservedConfrontare la dinamica temporale delle risposte emodinamiche registrate con BOLD (Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent), ASL (Arterial spin labelling) e fNIRS (functional NearInfrared Spectroscopy) agli stimoli motori (movimento delle mani) negli adulti nell'analisi in letteraturaTo compare the temporal dynamics of hemodynamic responses recorded with BOLD (Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent), ASL (Arterial Spin Labeling), and fNIRS (functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy) to motor stimuli (hand movements) in adults, as analyzed in the literatur
- …
