Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume 26, Issue 1 , Pages 45-53 , January 2008

Improved functional mapping of the human amygdala using a standard functional magnetic resonance imaging sequence with simple modifications

  • Carmen Morawetz

      Affiliations

    • MR Research in Neurology and Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, Georg-August-University Göttingen, 37099 Göttingen, Germany
    • ,
  • Petra Holz

      Affiliations

    • MR Research in Neurology and Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, Georg-August-University Göttingen, 37099 Göttingen, Germany
    • ,
  • Claudia Lange

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Georg-August-University Göttingen, 37099 Göttingen, Germany
    • ,
  • Jürgen Baudewig

      Affiliations

    • MR Research in Neurology and Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, Georg-August-University Göttingen, 37099 Göttingen, Germany
    • ,
  • Godehard Weniger

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Georg-August-University Göttingen, 37099 Göttingen, Germany
    • ,
  • Eva Irle

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Georg-August-University Göttingen, 37099 Göttingen, Germany
    • ,
  • Peter Dechent

      Affiliations

    • MR Research in Neurology and Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, Georg-August-University Göttingen, 37099 Göttingen, Germany
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +49 551 39 13141; fax: +49 551 39 13243.

Received 20 March 2007 ,Revised 13 April 2007 ,Accepted 14 April 2007.

References 

  1. Calder AJ, Lawrence AD, Young AW. Neuropsychology of fear and loathing. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001;2:352–363
  2. LeDoux JE. Emotion circuits in the brain. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2000;23:155–184
  3. Phan KL, Wager T, Taylor SF, Liberzon I. Functional neuroanatomy of emotion: a meta-analysis of emotion activation studies in PET and fMRI. Neuroimage. 2002;16:331–348
  4. Phelps EA, LeDoux JE. Contributions of the amygdala to emotion processing: from animal models to human behavior. Neuron. 2005;48:175–187
  5. LaBar KS, Cabeza R. Cognitive neuroscience of emotional memory. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2006;7:54–64
  6. Wager TD, Phan KL, Liberzon I, Taylor SF. Valence, gender, and lateralization of functional brain anatomy in emotion: a meta-analysis of findings from neuroimaging. Neuroimage. 2003;19:513–531
  7. Phan KL, Wager TD, Taylor SF, Liberzon I. Functional neuroimaging studies of human emotions. CNS Spectr. 2004;9:258–266
  8. Ogawa S, Lee TM, Kay AR, Tank DW. Brain magnetic resonance imaging with contrast dependent on blood oxygenation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990;87:9868–9872
  9. Ogawa S, Lee TM, Nayak AS, Glynn P. Oxygenation-sensitive contrast in magnetic resonance image of rodent brain at high magnetic fields. Magn Reson Med. 1990;14:68–78
  10. Bandettini PA, Wong EC, Hinks RS, Tikofsky RS, Hyde JS. Time course EPI of human brain function during task activation. Magn Reson Med. 1992;25:390–397
  11. Blamire AM, Ogawa S, Ugurbil K, Rothman D, McCarthy G, Ellermann JM, et al. Dynamic mapping of the human visual cortex by high-speed magnetic resonance imaging. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992;89:11069–11073
  12. Frahm J, Bruhn H, Merboldt KD, Hanicke W. Dynamic MR imaging of human brain oxygenation during rest and photic stimulation. J Magn Reson Imaging. 1992;2:501–505
  13. Kwong KK, Belliveau JW, Chesler DA, Goldberg IE, Weisskoff RM, Poncelet BP, et al. Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during primary sensory stimulation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992;89:5675–5679
  14. Hennig J, Speck O, Koch MA, Weiller C. Functional magnetic resonance imaging: a review of methodological aspects and clinical applications. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2003;18:1–15
  15. Gati JS, Menon RS, Ugurbil K, Rutt BK. Experimental determination of the BOLD field strength dependence in vessels and tissue. Magn Reson Med. 1997;38:296–302
  16. Kruger G, Kastrup A, Glover GH. Neuroimaging at 1.5 T and 3.0 T: comparison of oxygenation-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2001;45:595–604
  17. Czervionke LF, Daniels DL, Wehrli FW, Mark LP, Hendrix LE, Strandt JA, et al. Magnetic susceptibility artifacts in gradient-recalled echo MR imaging. Am J Neuroradiol. 1988;9:1149–1155
  18. Ojemann JG, Akbudak E, Snyder AZ, McKinstry RC, Raichle ME, Conturo TE. Anatomic localization and quantitative analysis of gradient refocused echo-planar fMRI susceptibility artifacts. Neuroimage. 1997;6:156–167
  19. Lipschutz B, Friston KJ, Ashburner J, Turner R, Price CJ. Assessing study-specific regional variations in fMRI signal. Neuroimage. 2001;13:392–398
  20. Stenger VA, Boada FE, Noll DC. Three-dimensional tailored RF pulses for the reduction of susceptibility artifacts in T(*)(2)-weighted functional MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2000;44:525–531
  21. Wang L, McCarthy G, Song AW, Labar KS. Amygdala activation to sad pictures during high-field (4 Tesla) functional magnetic resonance imaging. Emotion. 2005;5:12–22
  22. Merboldt KD, Fransson P, Bruhn H, Frahm J. Functional MRI of the human amygdala?. Neuroimage. 2001;14:253–257
  23. Robinson S, Windischberger C, Rauscher A, Moser E. Optimized 3 T EPI of the amygdalae. Neuroimage. 2004;22:203–210
  24. Birbaumer N, Veit R, Lotze M, Erb M, Hermann C, Grodd W, et al. Deficient fear conditioning in psychopathy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62:799–805
  25. Critchley HD, Rotshtein P, Nagai Y, O'Doherty J, Mathias CJ, Dolan RJ. Activity in the human brain predicting differential heart rate responses to emotional facial expressions. Neuroimage. 2005;24:751–762
  26. Chen N, Wyrwicz AM. Removal of intravoxel dephasing artifact in gradient-echo images using a field-map based RF refocusing technique. Magn Reson Med. 1999;42:807–812
  27. Cho ZH, Ro YM, Park ST, Chung SC. NMR functional imaging using a tailored RF gradient echo sequence: a true susceptibility measurement technique. Magn Reson Med. 1996;35:1–5
  28. Deichmann R, Josephs O, Hutton C, Corfield DR, Turner R. Compensation of susceptibility-induced BOLD sensitivity losses in echo-planar fMRI imaging. Neuroimage. 2002;15:120–135
  29. Frahm J, Merboldt KD, Hanicke W. Direct FLASH MR imaging of magnetic field inhomogeneities by gradient compensation. Magn Reson Med. 1988;6:474–480
  30. Frahm J, Merboldt KD, Hanicke W. The influence of the slice-selection gradient on functional MRI of human brain activation. J Magn Reson B. 1994;103:91–93
  31. Glover GH. 3D z-shim method for reduction of susceptibility effects in BOLD fMRI. Magn Reson Med. 1999;42:290–299
  32. Merboldt KD, Finsterbusch J, Frahm J. Reducing inhomogeneity artifacts in functional MRI of human brain activation — thin sections vs gradient compensation. J Magn Reson. 2000;145:184–191
  33. Stocker T, Kellermann T, Schneider F, Habel U, Amunts K, Pieperhoff P, et al. Dependence of amygdala activation on echo time: results from olfactory fMRI experiments. Neuroimage. 2006;30:151–159
  34. Glover GH, Law CS. Spiral-in/out BOLD fMRI for increased SNR and reduced susceptibility artifacts. Magn Reson Med. 2001;46:515–522
  35. Preston AR, Thomason ME, Ochsner KN, Cooper JC, Glover GH. Comparison of spiral-in/out and spiral-out BOLD fMRI at 1.5 and 3 T. Neuroimage. 2004;21:291–301
  36. Frahm J, Merboldt KD, Hanicke W. Functional MRI of human brain activation at high spatial resolution. Magn Reson Med. 1993;29:139–144
  37. Haacke EM, Tkach JA, Parrish TB. Reduction of T2* dephasing in gradient field-echo imaging. Radiology. 1989;170:457–462
  38. Chen NK, Dickey CC, Yoo SS, Guttmann CR, Panych LP. Selection of voxel size and slice orientation for fMRI in the presence of susceptibility field gradients: application to imaging of the amygdala. Neuroimage. 2003;19:817–825
  39. Deichmann R, Gottfried JA, Hutton C, Turner R. Optimized EPI for fMRI studies of the orbitofrontal cortex. Neuroimage. 2003;19:430–441
  40. Bestmann S, Baudewig J, Siebner HR, Rothwell JC, Frahm J. Functional MRI of the immediate impact of transcranial magnetic stimulation on cortical and subcortical motor circuits. Eur J Neurosci. 2004;19:1950–1962
  41. Bestmann S, Baudewig J, Siebner HR, Rothwell JC, Frahm J. BOLD MRI responses to repetitive TMS over human dorsal premotor cortex. Neuroimage. 2005;28:22–29
  42. Bestmann S, Oliviero A, Voss M, Dechent P, Lopez-Dolado E, Driver J, et al. Cortical correlates of TMS-induced phantom hand movements revealed with concurrent TMS-fMRI. Neuropsychologia. 2006;44:2959–2971
  43. Henning S, Merboldt KD, Frahm J. Simultaneous recordings of visual evoked potentials and BOLD MRI activations in response to visual motion processing. NMR Biomed. 2005;18:543–552
  44. S. Henning, K.D. Merboldt, J. Frahm, Task- and EEG-correlated analyses of BOLD MRI responses to eyes opening and closing. Brain Res 2006;1073–1074:359–64.
  45. Lang N, Baudewig J, Kallenberg K, Antal A, Happe S, Dechent P, et al. Transient prosopagnosia after ischemic stroke. Neurology. 2006;66:916
  46. Lutcke H, Merboldt KD, Frahm J. The cost of parallel imaging in functional MRI of the human brain. Magn Reson Imaging. 2006;24:1–5
  47. Sack AT, Kohler A, Bestmann S, Linden DE, Dechent P, Goebel R, et al. Imaging the brain activity changes underlying impaired visuospatial judgments: simultaneous fMRI, TMS, and behavioral studies. Cereb Cortex. 2007;[Electronic publication ahead of print]
  48. Seseke S, Baudewig J, Kallenberg K, Ringert RH, Seseke F, Dechent P. Voluntary pelvic floor muscle control — an fMRI study. Neuroimage. 2006;31:1399–1407
  49. Zaehle T, Jordan K, Wustenberg T, Baudewig J, Dechent P, Mast FW. The neural basis of the egocentric and allocentric spatial frame of reference. Brain Res. 2007;1137:92–103
  50. Fera F, Yongbi MN, vanGelderen P, Frank JA, Mattay VS, Duyn JH. EPI-BOLD fMRI of human motor cortex at 1.5 T and 3.0 T: sensitivity dependence on echo time and acquisition bandwidth. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2004;19:19–26
  51. Zou P, Hutchins SB, Dutkiewicz RM, Li CS, Ogg RJ. Effects of EPI readout bandwidth on measured activation map and BOLD response in fMRI experiments. Neuroimage. 2005;27:15–25
  52. Ekman P, Friesen W. Pictures of facial affect. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press; 1976;
  53. Genovese CR, Lazar NA, Nichols T. Thresholding of statistical maps in functional neuroimaging using the false discovery rate. Neuroimage. 2002;15:870–878
  54. Pruessner JC, Li LM, Serles W, Pruessner M, Collins DL, Kabani N, et al. Volumetry of hippocampus and amygdala with high-resolution MRI and three-dimensional analysis software: minimizing the discrepancies between laboratories. Cereb Cortex. 2000;10:433–442
  55. Gorno-Tempini ML, Hutton C, Josephs O, Deichmann R, Price C, Turner R. Echo time dependence of BOLD contrast and susceptibility artifacts. Neuroimage. 2002;15:136–142
  56. Wansapura JP, Holland SK, Dunn RS, Ball WS. NMR relaxation times in the human brain at 3.0 Tesla. J Magn Reson Imaging. 1999;9:531–538
  57. Weiskopf N, Hutton C, Josephs O, Deichmann R. Optimal EPI parameters for reduction of susceptibility-induced BOLD sensitivity losses: a whole-brain analysis at 3 T and 1.5 T. Neuroimage. 2006;33:493–504
  58. Baas D, Aleman A, Kahn RS. Lateralization of amygdala activation: a systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies. Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 2004;45:96–103

PII: S0730-725X(07)00265-2

doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2007.04.014

Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume 26, Issue 1 , Pages 45-53 , January 2008

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution