Abstract
Nonpainful tactile sensory stimuli are processed in the cortex, subcortex, and brainstem. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have highlighted the value of whole-brain, systems-level investigation for examining sensory processing. However, whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging studies are uncommon, in part due to challenges with signal to noise when studying the brainstem. Furthermore, differentiation of small sensory brainstem structures such as the cuneate and gracile nuclei necessitates high-resolution imaging. To address this gap in systems-level sensory investigation, we employed a whole-brain, multi-echo functional magnetic resonance imaging acquisition at 3T with multi-echo independent component analysis denoising and brainstem-specific modeling to enable detection of activation across the entire sensory system. In healthy participants, we examined patterns of activity in response to nonpainful brushing of the right hand, left hand, and right foot (n = 10 per location), and found the expected lateralization, with distinct cortical and subcortical responses for upper and lower limb stimulation. At the brainstem level, we differentiated the adjacent cuneate and gracile nuclei, corresponding to hand and foot stimulation respectively. Our findings demonstrate that simultaneous cortical, subcortical, and brainstem mapping at 3T could be a key tool to understand the sensory system in both healthy individuals and clinical cohorts with sensory deficits.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | bhae273 |
| Journal | Cerebral Cortex |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 1 2024 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Center for Translational Imaging at Northwestern University and through the computational resources and staff contributions provided for the Quest high performance computing facility at Northwestern University, which is jointly supported by the Office of the Provost, the Office for Research, and Northwestern University Information Technology. Thank you to Julius P.A. Dewald, C\u00E9sar Caballero-Gaudes, and Marta Bianciardi for their advice and guidance. This work was supported by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health (T32EB025766 to N.A.R.), the National Science Foundation (DGE-2234667 to R.G.C.), and the UK Medical Research Council (MR/N026969/1 to J.C.W.B). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Keywords
- BOLD fMRI
- cuneate nucleus
- gracile nucleus
- medulla
- tactile sensation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience