Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40800978›Full record

ArticleImaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)2025

Blood nulling versus tissue suppression: Enhancing integrated VASO and perfusion (VAPER) contrast for laminar fMRI.

Yuhui Chai, Linqing Li, Rüdiger Stirnberg, Laurentius Huber, Tony Stöcker, Peter A Bandettini, Bradley P Sutton

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Yuhui ChaiBeckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States.
Linqing LiFunctional MRI Core, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
Rüdiger StirnbergGerman Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany.
Laurentius HuberFunctional MRI Core, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
Tony StöckerGerman Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn, Germany.
Peter A BandettiniFunctional MRI Core, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
Bradley P SuttonBeckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States.

Funding

Unlocking whole brain, layer-specific functional connectivity with 3D VAPER fMRIR03EB034324 · NIBIB · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · PI CHAI, YUHUI · 2023 to 2024
$159k
NIBIB NIH HHS R03 EB034324
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Cerebral blood volume (CBV) and cerebral blood flow (CBF)-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have proven to be more laminar-specific than blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast fMRI, but they suffer from relatively low sensitivity. In previous work, we integrated CBV and CBF into one contrast using DANTE (Delay Alternating with Nutation for Tailored Excitation) pulse trains combined with 3D echo-planar imaging (EPI) to create an integrated blood volume and perfusion (VAPER)-weighted contrast (Chai et al., 2020). Building on this, we have now introduced a magnetization transfer approach to induce a tissue-suppression-based VASO (vascular space occupancy) effect and incorporated it with the VAPER technique to boost the overall sensitivity while maintaining superior laminar specificity, all without altering the original VAPER sequence timing scheme. This magnetization transfer (MT)-VAPER fMRI acquisition alternates between DANTE blood-nulling and MT-tissue-suppression conditions, generating an integrated VASO and perfusion contrast enhanced by MT. Both theoretical and experimental evaluation demonstrated an approximately 30% enhancement in VAPER sensitivity with MT application. This novel MT-VAPER method was empirically validated in human primary motor and visual cortices, demonstrating its superior laminar specificity and robust reproducibility, establishing it as valuable non-BOLD tool for laminar fMRI in human brain function research.

Indexed as

cortical depthcortical layerhigh-resolution fMRIlaminar fMRImagnetization transfer

Identifiers

PMID40800978
PMCPMC12319795

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.