Robust functional mapping of layer-selective responses in human lateral geniculate nucleus with high-resolution 7T fMRI.
Yazhu Qian, Jinyou Zou, Zihao Zhang, Jing An, Zhentao Zuo, Yan Zhuo, Danny J J Wang, Peng Zhang
Author Information
Yazhu Qian: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.
Jinyou Zou: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.
Zihao Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.
Jing An: Digital Department, Siemens Shenzhen Magnetic Resonance Ltd, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China.
Zhentao Zuo: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.
Yan Zhuo: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.
Danny J J Wang: Digital Department, Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Peng Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.
The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus is the major subcortical relay of retinal input to the visual cortex. It plays important roles in visual perception and cognition and is closely related with several eye diseases and brain disorders. Primate LGNs mainly consist of six layers of monocular neurons with distinct cell types and functions. The non-invasive measure of layer-selective activities of the human LGN would have broad scientific and clinical implications. Using high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 7 Tesla (T) and carefully designed visual stimuli, we achieved robust functional mapping of eye-specific and also magnocellular/parvocellular-specific laminar patterns of the human LGN. These laminar patterns were highly reproducible with different pulse sequences scanned on separate days, between different subjects, and were in remarkable consistency with the simulation from high-resolution histology of the human LGNs. These findings clearly demonstrate that 7T fMRI can robustly resolve layer-specific responses of the human LGN. This paves the way for future investigation of the critical roles of the LGN in human visual perception and cognition, as well as the neural mechanisms of many developmental and neurodegenerative diseases.
