Quantitation of regional cerebral blood flow increases during motor activation: A multislice, steady-state, arterial spin tagging study

Steady-state arterial spin tagging approaches were used to construct multis lice images of relative cerebral blood flow changes during finger-tapping t asks. Statistically significant increases in cerebral blood flow were obser ved in primary sensorimotor cortex in all seven subjects. The mean volume o f the activated region in the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex was 0.9 cm(3), and the mean increase in cerebral blood flow in the activated a rea was 54% +/- 11%, Although the extended spatial coverage is advantageous for activation studies, the intrinsic sensitivity of the multislice approa ch is smaller than the intrinsic sensitivity of the single-slice, arterial spin tagging approach. Magn Reson Med 42:404-407, 1999. Published 1999 Wile y-Liss, Inc.dagger