title: Human ocular dominance columns as revealed by high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: We mapped ocular dominance columns (ODCs) in normal human subjects using high-field (4 T) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a segmented echo planar imaging technique and an in-plane resolution of 0.47 x 0.47 mm(2). The differential responses to left or right eye stimulation could be reliably resolved in anatomically well-defined sections of V1. The orientation and width ( approximately 1 mm) of mapped ODC stripes conformed to those previously revealed in postmortem brains stained with cytochrome oxidase. In addition, we showed that mapped ODC patterns could be largely reproduced in different experiments conducted within the same experimental session or over different sessions. Our results demonstrate that high-field fMRI can be used for studying the functions of human brains at columnar spatial resolution.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Cognitive Brain Mapping, RIKEN Brain Science Institute and CREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, 2-1 Hirosawa, 351-0198, Wako, Saitama, Japan. kcheng@mailman.riken.go.jp
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Waggoner
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009799:Ocular Physiological Phenomena; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology