We are working to improve the spatial resolution and specificity of fMRI so that it is possible to distinguish neural activity changes across cortical layers and better understand the mechanisms of mesoscale activity.

1. Patch Analysis

Cerebral blood volume (CBV) weighted fMRI with sub millimeter resolution has been shown to resolve layer specific brain activity. Most of the layer studies are focused on reporting depth dependent activity patterns so called layer profiles. However, those profiles are very dynamic in time and averaging them across time may mislead the interpretation of feedback and feedforward activity patterns. Here we propose a patch analysis, which focuses both depth and time information of a given cortical patch. This not only helps direct viewing of profile changes in time, but it also allows several different analysis approaches like ranking feedback and feed forwardness, capturing time instances of a specific layer in time in each cortical patch.

2. Layer Regional Homogeneity (ReHo)

Cerebral blood volume (CBV) weighted fMRI with sub millimeter resolution has been shown to resolve layer specific brain activity. However rigorous processing pipelines are needed to localize the depth dependent activity. Here we propose a simple tool to characterize mesoscale structure by using local connectivity patterns. It is model free and fast tool for exploring any layer data given only the depth of the voxels, also the regions Layer ReHo highlights are in line with the task dependent activity.

Publications:

Published:
2025
Title:
Blood-nulling versus tissue-suppression: Enhancing integrated VASO and perfusion (VAPER) contrast for laminar fMRI
Publication:
Imaging Neuroscience
Published:
2025
Title:
NORDIC denoising on VASO data
Publication:
Frontiers in Neuroscience
Data
 Code
Published:
2024
Title:
T1234: A distortion-matched structural scan solution to misregistration of high resolution fMRI data
Publication:
BioRXiv
Data
 Code
Published:
2024
Title:
Fuzzy ripple artifact in high resolution fMRI: identification, cause, and mitigation
Publication:
BioRXiv
Data
 Code
Published:
2024
Title:
Improving laminar fMRI specificity by reducing macrovascular bias revealed by respiration effects
Publication:
Imaging Neuroscience
Code
Published:
2024
Title:
Unlocking near-whole-brain, layer-specific functional connectivity with 3D VAPER fMRI
Publication:
Imaging Neuroscience
Data
 Code
Published:
2022
Title:
Layer-specific activation in human primary sensory cortex during tactile temporal prediction error processing
Publication:
Neuroimage
Published:
2021
Title:
Linking cortical circuit models to human cognition with laminar fMRI
Publication:
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Published:
2021
Title:
Layer-dependent functional connectivity methods
Publication:
Progress in Neurobiology
Published:
2021
Title:
Magnetization transfer weighted EPI facilitates cortical depth determination in native fMRI space
Publication:
NeuroImage
Data
 Code
Published:
2021
Title:
Topographical and laminar distribution of audiovisual processing within human planum temporale
Publication:
Progress in Neurobiology
Code
Published:
2021
Title:
Challenges and opportunities of mesoscopic brain mapping with fMRI
Publication:
Current Opinion in Behavioral Neurosciences
Published:
2020
Title:
Sub-millimeter fMRI reveals multiple topographical digit representations that form action maps in human motor cortex
Publication:
NeuroImage
Data
Published:
2019
Title:
Layer-specific activation of sensory input and predictive feedback in the human primary somatosensory cortex
Publication:
Science Advances
Published:
2019
Title:
Layer-dependent activity in human prefrontal cortex during working memory
Publication:
Nature Neuroscience
Data
 Code
Published:
2018
Title:
Techniques for blood volume fMRI with VASO: From low-resolution mapping towards sub-millimeter layer-dependent applications
Publication:
NeuroImage
Published:
2017
Title:
Physiological basis of vascular autocalibration (VasA): Comparison to hypercapnia calibration methods
Publication:
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Published:
2017
Title:
High-Resolution CBV-fMRI Allows Mapping of Laminar Activity and Connectivity of Cortical Input and Output in Human M1
Publication:
Neuron

Presentations:

Presented on:
July 2023
Title:
Cluster-based connectivity tool: Capturing laminar and columnar topography during naturalistic tasks
Conference/Event:
2023: Organization for Human Brain Mapping
File:
Presented on:
June 2022
Title:
Laminar level subcortico-cortical interactions during naturalistic movie viewing
Conference/Event:
2022: Organization for Human Brain Mapping
File:
akin_subcortical_pos_sm.pdf
Presented on:
June 2016
Title:
Cerebrovascular changes during the valsalva maneuver measured with VASO
Conference/Event:
2016: Organization for Human Brain Mapping
File:
handwerker_valsalvavaso_hbm2016_small.pdf