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Review
. 2008 Aug;5 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S71-8.
doi: 10.1038/ncpcardio1248.

Magnetic resonance imaging of neural circuits

Jeff Duyn  1 , Alan P Koretsky
Affiliations
Review

Magnetic resonance imaging of neural circuits

Jeff Duyn et al. Nat Clin Pract Cardiovasc Med. 2008 Aug.

Abstract

A major goal of modern MRI research is to be able to image neural circuits in the central nervous system. Critical to this mission is the ability to describe a number of important parameters associated with neural circuits. These parameters include neural architecture, functional activation of neural circuits, anatomical and functional connectivity of neural circuits, and factors that might alter neural circuits, such as trafficking of immune cells and brain precursor cells in the brain. Remarkably, a variety of work in human and animal brains has demonstrated that all these features of neural circuits can be visualized with MRI. In this Article we provide a brief summary of the new directions in neural imaging research, which should prove useful in future analyses of normal and pathological human brains and in studies of animal models of neurological and psychiatric disorders. At present, few MRI data characterizing the neural circuits in the heart are available, but in this Article we discuss the applicable present developments and the prospects for the future.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Manganese enhanced MRI enables functional neuroarchitecture to be detected in the in vivo rat brain. Images were taken 24-48 hours after intravenous infusion of MnCl2 at 100 micron resolution using and 11.7 T animal MRI system. Scalebar = 1mm. A) Cell layers of the hippocampus; B) Layers in the cerebellum, and C) layers in cerebral cortex. Images adapted from [24].
Figure 2
Figure 2
High resolution in-vivo human brain anatomy using multi-channel detectors at 7.0 T and susceptibility contrast using signal magnitude (A) and phase (C-D) at 25-50 nl resolution An axial brain slice (A, scale bar 20 mm) shows strong contrast variation throughout the image. Substantial contrast variations are also seen in the major fiber bundles (B, scale bar 20 mm) including the internal and external capsule (ic, ec), the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum (ge, sp), and the optic radiation (or). Within the visual cortex (C, scalebar 5 mm) intracortical detail allows identification of the line of Gennari (darkening in central layer). In MS (D, scalebar 5 mm), signal phase allow high resolution imaging of small peri-vascular lesions (image courtesy of Francesca Bagnato and Henry McFarland, NIH).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Spatial patterns of correlated BOLD fMRI activity in humans during rest. Spontaneous activity occurs in distinct spatial patterns, many of which show hemispheric symmetry. Each color represents a single activity pattern that occurred consistently over 11 subjects (for methodological details see [71]. Image courtesy of Masaki Fukunaga, LFMI, NINDS, NIH.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Injection of MnCl2 into specific brain regions enables MRI of neuronal tracts at the level of functional units of the brain. A) Layer specific tracing from rat thalamus to cortex showing enhancement primarily in layer 4 and with less enhancement in deep layer 5 consistent with the known input layers [61] (Image courtesy of Jason Tucciarone, LFMI, NINDS, NIH). B) Individual glomeruli from the surface of the bulb imaged using manganese enhanced MRI after administration of MnCl2 to the nose and presentation of a specific odor (Image courtesy of Kai-Chuang Hsiang, LFMI, NINDS, NIH). Both images were acquired from an 11.7 animal MRI system using resolutions of 100 μm (A) and 75 μm (B).
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