Comparing functional connectivity of small nucleus in brainstem with multi- and single-echo fMRI: A resting state study

Motivation: Efforts to characterize the function of DR, MR and LC in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have been hampered by their small size and location near a large source of noise. Goal(s): The aim of this study is to compare the functional connectivity (FC) of small nucleus in brainstem with multi- (ME) and single-echo (SE) resting state fMRI. Approach: The whole-brain FC of LC, DR and MR were generated by using ME-fMRI and SE-fMRI. Results: Precuneus was correlated with LC in both methods. Meanwhile, both methods shown cerebellum was correlated with DR, the cingulum was correlated with MR. Impact: It suggests that ME-fMRI may also provide significant advantages over single echo fMRI approaches when investigating the FC of small nucleus of brainstem. ME-fMRI offers substantial advantages over single echo fMRI.