Congratulations to postdoctoral research fellow Rachael Stickland and colleagues on our publication in Neuroimage, titled A practical modification to a resting state fMRI protocol for improved characterization of cerebrovascular function.

By simply adding a few short breath-holds or deep breaths to the start of a typical resting state fMRI acquisition, we can achieve much more robust maps of cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR, the dilatory responsiveness of blood vessels) as well as the temporal delay of this response. We show that this practical approach can identify atypical cerebrovascular function, and that it is essential to understand both the amplitude and timing of the vascular response to accurately characterize pathology. This approach is easy to incorporate into traditional fMRI experiments and could help determine how vascular function and neural function are related in disease.

Find the (open access) full paper here!