• Nina Theysohn, Shaozheng Qin, Stefan Maderwald, Benedikt A Poser, Jens M Theysohn, Mark E Ladd, David G Norris, Elke R Gizewski, Guillen Fernandez, and Indira Tendolkar.
• University Hospital Essen, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology, Essen, Germany; University Duisburg-Essen, Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Essen, Germany.
• J Neuroimaging. 2013 Oct 1;23(4):445-51.

AbstractHigh field strength functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has developed rapidly. However, it suffers from increased artifacts in brain regions such as the medial temporal lobe (MTL), challenging functional imaging of the hippocampus with the objective of high-spatial resolution, which is particularly useful for this region both from a clinical and cognitive neuroscience perspective. We set out to compare a BOLD sequence at 7 T versus 3 T to visualize the MTL activity during an associative memory-encoding task. Twenty-eight healthy volunteers underwent a blocked-design fMRI at either 3 T or 7 T while performing a face-profession associative memory encoding task. Qualitative analyses of overall image quality revealed that functional images at 7 T were of high quality, showing a good white/gray matter contrast, with reasonably acceptable signal dropouts and artifacts at the lower portion of the temporal lobe. Analyses of task-related fMRI data revealed robust activations in the bilateral MTL during associative memory encoding at both field strengths. Notably, we observed significantly stronger memory-related hippocampal activation at 7 T than at 3 T, suggesting higher BOLD sensitivity at 7 T. These results are discussed in the light of the feasibility of 7 T scanning protocols for the MTL.Copyright © 2013 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.

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