The first phase of the Human Connectome Project pioneered advances in MRI technology for mapping the macroscopic structural connections of the living human brain through the engineering of a ...whole-body human MRI scanner equipped with maximum gradient strength of 300 mT/m, the highest ever achieved for human imaging. While this instrument has made important contributions to the understanding of macroscale connectional topology, it has also demonstrated the potential of dedicated high-gradient performance scanners to provide unparalleled in vivo assessment of neural tissue microstructure. Building on the initial groundwork laid by the original Connectome scanner, we have now embarked on an international, multi-site effort to build the next-generation human 3T Connectome scanner (Connectome 2.0) optimized for the study of neural tissue microstructure and connectional anatomy across multiple length scales. In order to maximize the resolution of this in vivo microscope for studies of the living human brain, we will push the diffusion resolution limit to unprecedented levels by (1) nearly doubling the current maximum gradient strength from 300 mT/m to 500 mT/m and tripling the maximum slew rate from 200 T/m/s to 600 T/m/s through the design of a one-of-a-kind head gradient coil optimized to minimize peripheral nerve stimulation; (2) developing high-sensitivity multi-channel radiofrequency receive coils for in vivo and ex vivo human brain imaging; (3) incorporating dynamic field monitoring to minimize image distortions and artifacts; (4) developing new pulse sequences to integrate the strongest diffusion encoding and highest spatial resolution ever achieved in the living human brain; and (5) calibrating the measurements obtained from this next-generation instrument through systematic validation of diffusion microstructural metrics in high-fidelity phantoms and ex vivo brain tissue at progressively finer scales with accompanying diffusion simulations in histology-based micro-geometries. We envision creating the ultimate diffusion MRI instrument capable of capturing the complex multi-scale organization of the living human brain – from the microscopic scale needed to probe cellular geometry, heterogeneity and plasticity, to the mesoscopic scale for quantifying the distinctions in cortical structure and connectivity that define cyto- and myeloarchitectonic boundaries, to improvements in estimates of macroscopic connectivity.
In vivo diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is limited in signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and acquisition time, which constrains spatial resolution to the macroscale regime. Ex vivo imaging, ...which allows for arbitrarily long scan times, is critical for exploring human brain structure in the mesoscale regime without loss of SNR. Standard head array coils designed for patients are sub-optimal for imaging ex vivo whole brain specimens. The goal of this work was to design and construct a 48-channel ex vivo whole brain array coil for high-resolution and high b-value diffusion-weighted imaging on a 3T Connectome scanner. The coil was validated with bench measurements and characterized by imaging metrics on an agar brain phantom and an ex vivo human brain sample. The two-segment coil former was constructed for a close fit to a whole human brain, with small receive elements distributed over the entire brain. Imaging tests including SNR and G-factor maps were compared to a 64-channel head coil designed for in vivo use. There was a 2.9-fold increase in SNR in the peripheral cortex and a 1.3-fold gain in the center when compared to the 64-channel head coil. The 48-channel ex vivo whole brain coil also decreases noise amplification in highly parallel imaging, allowing acceleration factors of approximately one unit higher for a given noise amplification level. The acquired diffusion-weighted images in a whole ex vivo brain specimen demonstrate the applicability and advantage of the developed coil for high-resolution and high b-value diffusion-weighted ex vivo brain MRI studies.
Purpose
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during infancy poses challenges due to practical, methodological, and analytical considerations. The aim of this study was to implement a ...hardware‐related approach to increase subject compliance for fMRI involving awake infants. To accomplish this, we designed, constructed, and evaluated an adaptive 32‐channel array coil.
Methods
To allow imaging with a close‐fitting head array coil for infants aged 1‐18 months, an adjustable head coil concept was developed. The coil setup facilitates a half‐seated scanning position to improve the infant’s overall scan compliance. Earmuff compartments are integrated directly into the coil housing to enable the usage of sound protection without losing a snug fit of the coil around the infant’s head. The constructed array coil was evaluated from phantom data using bench‐level metrics, signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) performances, and accelerated imaging capabilities for both in‐plane and simultaneous multislice (SMS) reconstruction methodologies. Furthermore, preliminary fMRI data were acquired to evaluate the in vivo coil performance.
Results
Phantom data showed a 2.7‐fold SNR increase on average when compared with a commercially available 32‐channel head coil. At the center and periphery regions of the infant head phantom, the SNR gains were measured to be 1.25‐fold and 3‐fold, respectively. The infant coil further showed favorable encoding capabilities for undersampled k‐space reconstruction methods and SMS techniques.
Conclusions
An infant‐friendly head coil array was developed to improve sensitivity, spatial resolution, accelerated encoding, motion insensitivity, and subject tolerance in pediatric MRI. The adaptive 32‐channel array coil is well‐suited for fMRI acquisitions in awake infants.
To investigate whether spatiotemporal magnetic field monitoring can correct pronounced eddy current-induced artifacts incurred by strong diffusion-sensitizing gradients up to 300 mT/m used in high ...b-value diffusion-weighted (DW) EPI.
A dynamic field camera equipped with 16
H NMR field probes was first used to characterize field perturbations caused by residual eddy currents from diffusion gradients waveforms in a 3D multi-shot EPI sequence on a 3T Connectom scanner for different gradient strengths (up to 300 mT/m), diffusion directions, and shots. The efficacy of dynamic field monitoring-based image reconstruction was demonstrated on high-gradient strength, submillimeter resolution whole-brain ex vivo diffusion MRI. A 3D multi-shot image reconstruction framework was developed that incorporated the nonlinear phase evolution measured with the dynamic field camera.
Phase perturbations in the readout induced by residual eddy currents from strong diffusion gradients are highly nonlinear in space and time, vary among diffusion directions, and interfere significantly with the image encoding gradients, changing the k-space trajectory. During the readout, phase modulations between odd and even EPI echoes become non-static and diffusion encoding direction-dependent. Superior reduction of ghosting and geometric distortion was achieved with dynamic field monitoring compared to ghosting reduction approaches such as navigator- and structured low-rank-based methods or MUSE followed by image-based distortion correction with the FSL tool "eddy."
Strong eddy current artifacts characteristic of high-gradient strength DW-EPI can be well corrected with dynamic field monitoring-based image reconstruction.
To extend the coverage of brain coil arrays to the neck and cervical-spine region to enable combined head and neck imaging at 7 Tesla (T) ultra-high field MRI.
The coil array structures of a ...64-channel receive coil and a 16-channel transmit coil were merged into one anatomically shaped close-fitting housing. Transmit characteristics were evaluated in a B
-field mapping study and an electromagnetic model. Receive SNR and the encoding capability for accelerated imaging were evaluated and compared with a commercially available 7 T brain array coil. The performance of the head-neck array coil was demonstrated in human volunteers using high-resolution accelerated imaging.
In the brain, the SNR matches the commercially available 32-channel brain array and showed improvements in accelerated imaging capabilities. More importantly, the constructed coil array improved the SNR in the face area, neck area, and cervical spine by a factor of 1.5, 3.4, and 5.2, respectively, in regions not covered by 32-channel brain arrays at 7 T. The interelement coupling of the 16-channel transmit coil ranged from -14 to -44 dB (mean = -19 dB, adjacent elements <-18 dB). The parallel 16-channel transmit coil greatly facilitates B
field shaping required for large FOV neuroimaging at 7 T.
This new head-neck array coil is the first demonstration of a device of this nature used for combined full-brain, head-neck, and cervical-spine imaging at 7 T. The array coil is well suited to provide large FOV images, which potentially improves ultrahigh field neuroimaging applications for clinical settings.
Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) of whole ex vivo human brain specimens enables three‐dimensional (3D) mapping of structural connectivity at the mesoscopic scale, providing detailed ...evaluation of fiber architecture and tissue microstructure at a spatial resolution that is difficult to access in vivo. To account for the short T2 and low diffusivity of fixed tissue, ex vivo dMRI is often acquired using strong diffusion‐sensitizing gradients and multishot/segmented 3D echo‐planar imaging (EPI) sequences to achieve high spatial resolution. However, the combination of strong diffusion‐sensitizing gradients and multishot/segmented EPI readout can result in pronounced ghosting artifacts incurred by nonlinear spatiotemporal variations in the magnetic field produced by eddy currents. Such ghosting artifacts cannot be corrected with conventional correction solutions and pose a significant roadblock to leveraging human MRI scanners with ultrahigh gradients for ex vivo whole‐brain dMRI. Here, we show that ghosting‐correction approaches that correct for either polarity‐related ghosting or shot‐to‐shot variations in a separate manner are suboptimal for 3D multishot diffusion‐weighted EPI experiments in fixed human brain specimens using strong diffusion‐sensitizing gradients on the 3‐T Connectom MRI scanner, resulting in orientationally biased dMRI estimates. We apply a recently developed advanced k‐space reconstruction method based on structured low‐rank matrix (SLM) modeling that handles both polarity‐related ghosting and shot‐to‐shot variation simultaneously, to mitigate artifacts in high‐angular resolution multishot dMRI data acquired in several fixed human brain specimens at 0.7–0.8‐mm isotropic spatial resolution using b‐values up to 10,000 s/mm2 and gradient strengths up to 280 mT/m. We demonstrate the improved mapping of diffusion tensor imaging and fiber orientation distribution functions in key neuroanatomical areas distributed across the whole brain using SLM‐based EPI ghost correction compared with alternative techniques.
Ex vivo diffusion MRI allows mapping of the whole human brain at a mesoscopic scale. To compensate for the low diffusivity of fixed tissue, much stronger diffusion‐sensitizing gradients than in in vivo are usually employed. At this gradient strength regime, ghosting artifacts induced by eddy currents are so pronounced that conventional solutions fall short, compromising the quality of dMRI data. We demonstrate that structured low‐rank matrix‐based k‐space reconstruction methods effectively reduce ghosting, enabling high‐fidelity, high‐spatial‐resolution dMRI of the whole human brain.
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