Background

Anatomically and physiologically, there is strong relationship between the brain and body. A new MRI platform covering both the brain and the limb would be beneficial for a more thorough understanding of the brain-body interactions.

New Method

A new arm-over-head (AOH) position was developed to collect MRI of the brain and one arm simultaneously. Subject’s tolerability and SNR of both the brain and limb under a serial of seven different TR (250–3000 ms) were tested. Then, blocked motor imagery tasks were performed to test the possible brain-body oscillations.

Results

The new MRI position provided structural images with good quality, and the AOH position had the best SNR under TR 3000 ms (p = 0.03 for the brain; p = 0.064 for the limb). Then, by using both hypothesis-free independent component analysis (ICA) and a priori seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analysis, it is demonstrated during motionless motor imagery tasks there existed possible brain-body BOLD oscillations connecting especially arm flexors to default mode, vision, and sensorimotor networks. The FC appeared at network density as low as 5%.

Comparison with Existing Methods

We have developed a new MRI subject position to explore the possibilities of more extensive neuronal and physiological networks.

Conclusions

The results of this preliminary experiment indicate that functional brain networks might extend outside the brain. A bottom-up circulatory effect might explain this phenomenon. Nonetheless, considering the mechanism of neural top-down control and the nature of complex brain networks, the existence of a more extensive whole-body functional network is rational and possible.

中文翻译：

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一个新的MRI受试者位置可以探索大脑和身体同时发生的BOLD振荡。

背景

在解剖学和生理上，大脑与身体之间存在紧密的关系。一个覆盖大脑和四肢的新的MRI平台将有助于更全面地了解大脑与人体的相互作用。

新方法

开发了新的头顶手臂（AOH）位置以同时收集大脑和一只手臂的MRI。测试了受试者在一系列七个不同TR（250-3000 ms）下的大脑和四肢的耐受性和SNR。然后，执行封闭的运动成像任务以测试可能的脑-体振动。

结果

新的MRI位置提供了具有良好质量的结构图像，并且AOH位置在TR 3000毫秒下具有最佳的SNR（对于大脑，p = 0.03；对于肢体，p = 0.064）。然后，通过使用无假设独立成分分析（ICA）和基于先验种子的功能连接（FC）分析，证明了在静止运动成像任务期间，可能存在脑体BOLD振荡，尤其是手臂屈肌连接到默认模式，视觉和感觉运动网络。FC以低至5％的网络密度出现。

与现有方法的比较

我们已经建立了一个新的MRI学科位置，以探索更广泛的神经元和生理网络的可能性。

结论

这项初步实验的结果表明，功能性大脑网络可能会延伸到大脑外部。自下而上的循环效应可以解释这种现象。但是，考虑到神经自上而下控制机制和复杂的大脑网络的性质，存在一个更广泛的全身功能网络是合理且可能的。