V.L. Ushakov - Ph.D. (Biol.), Leading Research Scientist, Cognitive Brain Function Neurovisualisation of Kurchatov-s Complex of NBICS-Technologies, National Research Centre "Kurchatov institute", Moscow E-mail: tiuq@yandex.ru V.A. Orlov - Post-graduate Student, Research-Engineer, Laboratory of Cognitive Brain Function Neurovisualisation of Kurchatov-s Complex of NBICS-Technologies, National Research Centre "Kurchatov institute", Moscow E-mail: ptica89@bk.ru V.V. Zinchenko Research-Engineer, Laboratory of Cognitive Brain Function Neurovisualisation of Kurchatov-s Complex of NBICS-Technologies, National Research Centre "Kurchatov institute", Moscow E-mail: z1315@mail.ru S.I. Kartashov - Post-graduate Student, Research-Engineer, Laboratory of Cognitive Brain Function Neurovisualisation of Kurchatov-s complex of NBICS-Technologies, National Research Centre "Kurchatov institute", Moscow E-mail: sikartashov@gmail.com B.M. Velichkovsky - Dr. Sc. (Psychol.), Head of Department of Neurocognitive and Socio-Humanitarian Sciences of Kurchatov-s Complex of NBICS-Technologies, National Research Centre "Kurchatov institute", Moscow E-mail: velich@applied-cognition.org

In this paper we compared the motor functions localization in the human brain using the analysis of fMRI data obtained by the standard (TR = 2 s) and ultra (TR = 0.3 s) fMRI sequence. The study involved 14 healthy volunteers between the ages of 19 to 24 (average age 21.5). Magnetom Verio 3T (Siemens, Germany) with 32-channel head coil was used for MRI data acquisition. fMRI protocol for ultrafast sequence was obtained from the University of Minnesota Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. The experiment consisted of 3 different sessions: 1. Standard EPI-based protocol for functional data acquisition (TR = 2000 ms, TE = 20 msec, slices 42, voxel size 2x2x2 mm) in the block paradigm (3 blocks of 10 s of right hand finger tapping). 2. Ultrafast protocol for functional data acquisition (TR = 300 ms, TE = 25 ms, 42 slice, the size of the voxel 2x2x2 mm) in the same paradigm (3 blocks of 10 s of right hand finger tapping). 3. Ultrafast protocol with the same parameters for event-related paradigm (2 times rapid right hand grip into a fist, 8 repetitions lasting 1 s and 10,5 s of rest between iterance). Shown, that the standard and ultrafast fMRI protocols have a high level of compliance with the published results for brain activity (corresponding to sensomotor functions) spatial localization. This opens up the possibility of using selected ultra-fast sequence for obtaining high spatial or temporal resolution of fMRI data in subsequent neurocognitive studies. It could be extremely useful for super-fast neuro interfaces with the high spatial resolution development namely for event-related designed experiments and with simultaneously recording of fMRI, EEG, verbal and tactile responses as well as the eye-tracking data.

 

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