Molecular-enriched functional connectivity in the human brain using multiband multi-echo simultaneous ASL/BOLD fMRI

Ottavia Dipasquale; Alexander Cohen; Daniel Martins; Fernando Zelaya; Federico Turkheimer; Mattia Veronese; Mitul A Mehta; Steven C R Williams; Baolian Yang; Suchandrima Banerjee; Yang Wang

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-38573-0

Molecular-enriched functional connectivity in the human brain using multiband multi-echo simultaneous ASL/BOLD fMRI

Ottavia Dipasquale, Alexander Cohen, Daniel Martins, Fernando Zelaya, Federico Turkheimer, Mattia Veronese, Mitul A Mehta, Steven C R Williams, Baolian Yang, Suchandrima Banerjee, Yang Wang

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Receptor-enriched analysis of functional connectivity by targets (REACT) is a strategy to enrich functional MRI (fMRI) data with molecular information on the neurotransmitter distribution density in the human brain, providing a biological basis to the functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Although this approach has been used in BOLD fMRI studies only so far, extending its use to ASL imaging would provide many advantages, including the more direct link of ASL with neuronal activity compared to BOLD and its suitability for pharmacological MRI studies assessing drug effects on baseline brain function. Here, we applied REACT to simultaneous ASL/BOLD resting-state fMRI data of 29 healthy subjects and estimated the ASL and BOLD FC maps related to six molecular systems. We then compared the ASL and BOLD FC maps in terms of spatial similarity, and evaluated and compared the test-retest reproducibility of each modality. We found robust spatial patterns of molecular-enriched FC for both modalities, moderate similarity between BOLD and ASL FC maps and comparable reproducibility for all but one molecular-enriched functional networks. Our findings showed that ASL is as informative as BOLD in detecting functional circuits associated with specific molecular pathways, and that the two modalities may provide complementary information related to these circuits.

Original language	English
Article number	11751
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38573-0
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 20 Jul 2023

Keywords

Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods
Reproducibility of Results
Cerebrovascular Circulation/physiology
Brain/diagnostic imaging
Brain Mapping/methods

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Dipasquale, O., Cohen, A., Martins, D., Zelaya, F., Turkheimer, F., Veronese, M., Mehta, M. A., Williams, S. C. R., Yang, B., Banerjee, S., & Wang, Y. (2023). Molecular-enriched functional connectivity in the human brain using multiband multi-echo simultaneous ASL/BOLD fMRI. Scientific Reports, 13(1), Article 11751. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38573-0

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title = "Molecular-enriched functional connectivity in the human brain using multiband multi-echo simultaneous ASL/BOLD fMRI",

abstract = "Receptor-enriched analysis of functional connectivity by targets (REACT) is a strategy to enrich functional MRI (fMRI) data with molecular information on the neurotransmitter distribution density in the human brain, providing a biological basis to the functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Although this approach has been used in BOLD fMRI studies only so far, extending its use to ASL imaging would provide many advantages, including the more direct link of ASL with neuronal activity compared to BOLD and its suitability for pharmacological MRI studies assessing drug effects on baseline brain function. Here, we applied REACT to simultaneous ASL/BOLD resting-state fMRI data of 29 healthy subjects and estimated the ASL and BOLD FC maps related to six molecular systems. We then compared the ASL and BOLD FC maps in terms of spatial similarity, and evaluated and compared the test-retest reproducibility of each modality. We found robust spatial patterns of molecular-enriched FC for both modalities, moderate similarity between BOLD and ASL FC maps and comparable reproducibility for all but one molecular-enriched functional networks. Our findings showed that ASL is as informative as BOLD in detecting functional circuits associated with specific molecular pathways, and that the two modalities may provide complementary information related to these circuits.",

keywords = "Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods, Reproducibility of Results, Cerebrovascular Circulation/physiology, Brain/diagnostic imaging, Brain Mapping/methods",

author = "Ottavia Dipasquale and Alexander Cohen and Daniel Martins and Fernando Zelaya and Federico Turkheimer and Mattia Veronese and Mehta, {Mitul A} and Williams, {Steven C R} and Baolian Yang and Suchandrima Banerjee and Yang Wang",

note = "Funding Information: OD, DM, MV, and SW are funded by the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility at South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust and King{\textquoteright}s College London. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. MV is supported by Italian National Center for HPC, BIG DATA AND QUANTUM COMPUTING (Project No. CN00000013 CN1), the Italian National Grant DIGITAL LIFELONG PREVENTION (Project No. PNC0000002_DARE), and by Wellcome Trust Digital Award (No. 215747/Z/19/Z). Funding Information: OD, DM, MV, and SW are funded by the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility at South London and Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust and King{\textquoteright}s College London. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. MV is supported by Italian National Center for HPC, BIG DATA AND QUANTUM COMPUTING (Project No. CN00000013 CN1), the Italian National Grant DIGITAL LIFELONG PREVENTION (Project No. PNC0000002_DARE), and by Wellcome Trust Digital Award (No. 215747/Z/19/Z). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s).",

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doi = "10.1038/s41598-023-38573-0",

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AU - Dipasquale, Ottavia

AU - Cohen, Alexander

AU - Martins, Daniel

AU - Zelaya, Fernando

AU - Turkheimer, Federico

AU - Veronese, Mattia

AU - Mehta, Mitul A

AU - Williams, Steven C R

AU - Yang, Baolian

AU - Banerjee, Suchandrima

AU - Wang, Yang

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N2 - Receptor-enriched analysis of functional connectivity by targets (REACT) is a strategy to enrich functional MRI (fMRI) data with molecular information on the neurotransmitter distribution density in the human brain, providing a biological basis to the functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Although this approach has been used in BOLD fMRI studies only so far, extending its use to ASL imaging would provide many advantages, including the more direct link of ASL with neuronal activity compared to BOLD and its suitability for pharmacological MRI studies assessing drug effects on baseline brain function. Here, we applied REACT to simultaneous ASL/BOLD resting-state fMRI data of 29 healthy subjects and estimated the ASL and BOLD FC maps related to six molecular systems. We then compared the ASL and BOLD FC maps in terms of spatial similarity, and evaluated and compared the test-retest reproducibility of each modality. We found robust spatial patterns of molecular-enriched FC for both modalities, moderate similarity between BOLD and ASL FC maps and comparable reproducibility for all but one molecular-enriched functional networks. Our findings showed that ASL is as informative as BOLD in detecting functional circuits associated with specific molecular pathways, and that the two modalities may provide complementary information related to these circuits.

AB - Receptor-enriched analysis of functional connectivity by targets (REACT) is a strategy to enrich functional MRI (fMRI) data with molecular information on the neurotransmitter distribution density in the human brain, providing a biological basis to the functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Although this approach has been used in BOLD fMRI studies only so far, extending its use to ASL imaging would provide many advantages, including the more direct link of ASL with neuronal activity compared to BOLD and its suitability for pharmacological MRI studies assessing drug effects on baseline brain function. Here, we applied REACT to simultaneous ASL/BOLD resting-state fMRI data of 29 healthy subjects and estimated the ASL and BOLD FC maps related to six molecular systems. We then compared the ASL and BOLD FC maps in terms of spatial similarity, and evaluated and compared the test-retest reproducibility of each modality. We found robust spatial patterns of molecular-enriched FC for both modalities, moderate similarity between BOLD and ASL FC maps and comparable reproducibility for all but one molecular-enriched functional networks. Our findings showed that ASL is as informative as BOLD in detecting functional circuits associated with specific molecular pathways, and that the two modalities may provide complementary information related to these circuits.

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KW - Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods

KW - Reproducibility of Results

KW - Cerebrovascular Circulation/physiology

KW - Brain/diagnostic imaging

KW - Brain Mapping/methods

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JF - Scientific Reports

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ER -

Molecular-enriched functional connectivity in the human brain using multiband multi-echo simultaneous ASL/BOLD fMRI

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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