Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Human Brain Activation Using Endogenous Susceptibility Contrast

This is the Ph.D Thesis of Peter Bandettini. It was orignally completed in October of 1994, but not officially published. The work is foundational to fMRI, as it covers all fundamental aspects of fMRI - including brain activation and neurovascular coupling, pulse sequence sensitivities, signal change locations and dynamics, post processing strategies, simulations of magnetic susceptibility using a novel "deterministic diffusion" approach, comparisons of T2 and T2* using TE-stepped and multi-echo EPI, modulation with field strength, effects of inflow, early hypercapnia and hypoxia effects, and applications. The creator is Peter Bandettini: Dr. Bandettini received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Marquette University in 1989, and his Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1994 at the Medical College of Wisconsin where he and colleague Eric Wong led the effort to carry out one of the first successful experiments in functional MRI using blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast. During this time, in collaboration with Andrej Jesmanowitz, he pioneered the use of correlation analysis for fMRI. It was in this publication that the term "FMRI" was introduced. After completing his post doctoral training at the Massachusetts General Hospital NMR Center in 1996, he returned to the Medical College of Wisconsin as an Assistant Professor. He was recruited to the NIH Intramural Program in 1999, where he is currently Director of the Functional MRI Facility and Chief of the Section on Functional Imaging Methods at the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2014, established the Center for Multimodal Neuroimaging, the Machine Learning team, and a Data Sharing team - all in NIMH. Throughout his career, he has been highly engaged with the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), having served as the Council Chair of OHBM in 2006. He was Editor for NeuroImage from 2005 to 2017, serving as Editor in Chief from 2011-2017. He was also Associate Editor for Human Brain Mapping from 2003 to 2007. Most recently - since 2023 - he has been Editor in Chief of the OHBM Journal: Aperture Neuro. He currently hosts a podcast, "OHBM Neurosalience," currently in its fifth season, discussing topics in neuroimaging methods several times a month. In 2002, he was the recipient of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Young Investigator Award (now named the early career investigator award), and in 2020, was the recipient of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine's Gold Medal - the society’s highest honor. His research focus since 1991 has been on advancing functional MRI (fMRI) acquisition, processing, interpretation, and applications. His current research focuses on ultra-high resolution fMRI of cortical layer specific activation as well as deriving unique neuronal and physiologic information from fMRI time series data. His work leverages multi-modal information, and aims to better understand individual similarities and differences in structure, activation, and resting state correlation towards increased clinical utility. He has published over 220 papers resulting in over 53,000 citations, and has presented over 430 invited lectures worldwide. In 2020, he published a book, titled “fMRI” through MIT press.