Relating quantitative 7T MRI across cortical depths to cytoarchitectonics, gene expression and connectomics.

ABSTRACT: Ultra-high field MRI across the depth of the cortex has the potential to provide anatomically precise biomarkers and mechanistic insights into neurodegenerative disease like Huntington's disease that show layer-selective vulnerability. Here we compare multi-parametric mapping (MPM) measures across cortical depths for a 7T 500 μm whole brain acquisition to (a) layer-specific cell measures from the von Economo histology atlas, (b) layer-specific gene expression, using the Allen Human Brain atlas and (c) white matter connections using high-fidelity diffusion tractography, at a 1.3 mm isotropic voxel resolution, from a 300mT/m Connectom MRI system. We show that R2*, but not R1, across cortical depths is highly correlated with layer-specific cell number and layer-specific gene expression. R1- a

SUBMITTER: McColgan P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8449108 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature