Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signal

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 412; no. 6843; pp. 150 - 157
• Main Authors: Logothetis, Nikos K, Pauls, Jon, Augath, Mark, Trinath, Torsten, Oeltermann, Axel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 12.07.2001; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Action Potentials; Analysis; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Contrast Sensitivity; Electric properties; Electrodes; Electrophysiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Models. Methods; Hemodynamics; Macaca mulatta; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Methods; Monkeys & apes; Neurology; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Neurophysiology; neurovascular system; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oxygen; Oxygen - blood; Photic Stimulation; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Synaptic Transmission; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Visual Cortex - physiology; Germany; Human; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Central nervous system; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/35084005

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is widely used to study the operational organization of the human brain, but the exact relationship between the measured fMRI signal and the underlying neural activity is unclear. Here we present simultaneous intracortical recordings of neural signals and fMRI responses. We compared local field potentials (LFPs), single- and multi-unit spiking activity with highly spatio-temporally resolved blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI responses from the visual cortex of monkeys. The largest magnitude changes were observed in LFPs, which at recording sites characterized by transient responses were the only signal that significantly correlated with the haemodynamic response. Linear systems analysis on a trial-by-trial basis showed that the impulse response of the neurovascular system is both animal- and site-specific, and that LFPs yield a better estimate of BOLD responses than the multi-unit responses. These findings suggest that the BOLD contrast mechanism reflects the input and intracortical processing of a given area rather than its spiking output.