7T MRI and combined EEG-fMRI to probe laminar and thalamic properties of the human brain – an overview of ongoing work at the TIC

The substantial gains in sensitivity and contrast achievable with 7T MRI offer remarkable new opportunities to image human brain structure and function, and resolve fine-scale activity across cortical layers and small subcortical structures like the thalamic nuclei, for example. When combined with complementary noninvasive modalities such as electroencephalography (EEG), 7T MRI can provide even more comprehensive, in-depth pictures of brain function. In this talk, I will provide an overview of research activities we have been conducting at the 7T system at TIC, which have been focused on two main questions: (1) the differentiation of the thalamic nuclei using high-resolution structural imaging sequences optimized for the thalamus, and (2) the development of a novel acquisition & processing setup for simultaneous EEG-fMRI allowing sub-mm resolution BOLD acquisitions and minimized artifacts on both modalities.

The lecture will be held as a zoom meeting, please connect using:

https://unibe-ch.zoom.us/j/61954796127?pwd=b25nSWVIVi9PWlV4Vlp3NXpMdjRQdz09

and do spread the word to anybody potentially interested (for further info: bernd.jung@insel.ch).