About being BOLD外文电子书籍.pdfVIP

Brain Research Reviews 50 (2005) 229 – 243 /locate/brainresrev Review About being BOLD Dinesh G. Nair* Palmer 127, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA Accepted 13 July 2005 Available online 5 October 2005 Abstract The last decade has seen an unprecedented increase in the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand the neural basis of cognition and behavior. Being non-invasive and relatively easy to use, most studies relied on changes in the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast as an indirect marker of variations in brain activity. However, the fact that BOLD fMRI is dependent on the blood flow response that follows neural activity and does not measure neural activity per se is seen as an inherent cause for concern while interpreting data from these studies. In order to characterize the BOLD signal correctly, it is imperative that we have a better understanding of neural events that lead to the BOLD response. A review of recent studies that addressed several aspects of BOLD fMRI including events at the level of the synapse, the nature of the neurovascular coupling, and some parameters of the BOLD signal is provided. This is intended to serve as background information for the interpretation of fMRI data in normal subjects and in patients with compromised neurovascular cou