• Ilaria Boscolo Galazzo, Silvia F Storti, Emanuela Formaggio, Francesca B Pizzini, Antonio Fiaschi, Alberto Beltramello, Alessandra Bertoldo, and Paolo Manganotti.
• Department of Neurological and Movement Sciences, Section of Neurology, University of Verona, Italy.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2014 Oct 1;40(4):937-48.

PurposeTo assess the applicability of arterial spin labeling (ASL) in comparison to blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast fMRI in detecting brain activations elicited by active and passive hand movements.Materials And MethodsA block design for ASL and BOLD fMRI was applied in 8 healthy subjects using active and passive hand tasks. Data analyses were performed at individual and group level, comparing both the different movements and the performance of the two techniques.ResultsGroup analyses showed involvement of the same areas during both tasks, as the contralateral sensorimotor cortex, supplementary motor area, cerebellum, inferior parietal lobes, thalamus. ASL detected smaller activation volumes than BOLD, but the areas had a high degree of colocalization. Few significant differences (P < 0.05) were found when the two tasks were compared for the number of activated voxels, coordinates of center of mass, and CBF estimates. Considering together all the areas, the mean %BOLD change was 0.79 ± 0.27 and 0.73 ± 0.24 for the active and passive movements respectively, while the mean %CBF changes were 34.1 ± 8.9 and 27.1 ± 14.8.ConclusionOur findings confirm passive and active tasks are strongly coupled, supporting the importance of passive tasks as a diagnostic tool in the clinical setting. ASL fMRI proved suitable for functional mapping and quantifying CBF changes, making it a promising technique for patient cohort applications.© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

31 keywords...

hide…