Presurgical Planning with Optimized Verbalized Speech Activation Studies in

University Of Michigan At Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

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Abstract

The goal of this project is to determine optimal stimulus designs and evaluate motion related artifact correction techniques that are specific for verbalized language studies at 3T field strength. The project is focused on (1) the design of acquisition methods to acquire functional MRI (fMRI) data with a clear presentation of stimuli and confirmation of response without the effect of scanner noise, (2) correction of image artifacts from head motion utilizing map-slice-to-volume (MSV) algorithm including dynamically computed field map for the susceptibility (x) induced field changes and spin saturation effect, (3) comparison of the clustered acquisitions with block designs for the statistical power in detecting blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal changes in overt speech studies after the adequate head motion artifact correction. In this study, the focus is correction of dynamic image distortion resulting from head movement by computing a concurrent field map with MSV motion parameters for each image and we propose the utility of field map driven dynamic distortion correctionto be added to MSV-TPS. The proposed dynamic field map computation is a unique, novel approach, which can be available only with the capability of estimating motion parameters by MSV for each image in the time series. The computed field map using the MSV motion parameters will be validated with the real time acquisition method. With the compexity in MSV for computing image warping, dynamic field map and intensity recovery by tracking spin saturation effect, fast analytical optimization and joint estimation of entropy in image series are investigated. This study proposes to evaluate and develop motion correction method in a higher magnetic field strength, 3T, which provides higher signal strength to detect brain functions in functional MRI technique. The image artifacts associated with head motion are augmented at higher field, and cannot be avoided, especially, for functional tasks involving verbal speech. The ability to accurately localize spoken language function in the brain is a significant advance in the field of fMRI. Actual production of speech involves articulation of words as well as language processing, and verbalized speech in the scanner has been problematic because of the RELEVANCE (See instructions):