Dataset Information

Safety and data quality of EEG recorded simultaneously with multi-band fMRI.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Simultaneously recorded electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) is highly informative yet technically challenging. Until recently, there has been little information about EEG data quality and safety when used with newer multi-band (MB) fMRI sequences. Here, we measure the relative heating of a MB protocol compared with a standard single-band (SB) protocol considered to be safe. We also evaluated EEG quality recorded concurrently with the MB protocol on humans.

Materials and methods

We compared radiofrequency (RF)-related heating at multiple electrodes and magnetic field magnitude, B1+RMS, of a MB fMRI sequence with whole-brain coverage (TR = 440 ms, MB factor = 4) against a previously recommended, safe SB sequence using a phantom outfitted with a 64-channel EEG cap. Next, 9 human subjects underwent eyes-closed resting state EEG-fMRI using the MB sequence. Additionally, in three of the subjects resting state EEG was recorded also during the SB sequence and in an fMRI-free condition to directly compare EEG data quality across scanning conditions. EEG data quality was assessed by the ability to remove gradient and cardioballistic artifacts along with a clean spectrogram.

Results

The heating induced by the MB sequence was lower than that of the SB sequence by a factor of 0.73 ± 0.38. This is consistent with an expected heating ratio of 0.64, calculated from the square of the ratio of B1+RMS values of the sequences. In the resting state EEG data, gradient and cardioballistic artifacts were successfully removed using traditional template subtraction. All subjects showed an individual alpha peak in the spectrogram with a posterior topography characteristic of eyes-closed EEG. The success of artifact rejection for the MB sequence was comparable to that in traditional SB sequences.

Conclusions

Our study shows that B1+RMS is a useful indication of the relative heating of fMRI protocols. This observation indicates that simultaneous EEG-fMRI recordings using this MB sequence can be safe in terms of RF-related heating, and that EEG data recorded using this sequence is of acceptable quality after traditional artifact removal techniques.

SUBMITTER: Egan MK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8253410 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:PurposeConcurrent EEG and fMRI is increasingly used to characterize the spatial-temporal dynamics of brain activity. However, most studies to date have been limited to conventional echo-planar imaging (EPI). There is considerable interest in integrating recently developed high-speed fMRI methods with high-density EEG to increase temporal resolution and sensitivity for task-based and resting state fMRI, and for detecting interictal spikes in epilepsy. In the present study using concurrent high-density EEG and recently developed high-speed fMRI methods, we investigate safety of radiofrequency (RF) related heating, the effect of EEG on cortical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in fMRI, and assess EEG data quality.Materials and methodsThe study compared EPI, multi-echo EPI, multi-band EPI and multi-slab echo-volumar imaging pulse sequences, using clinical 3 Tesla MR scanners from two different vendors that were equipped with 64- and 256-channel MR-compatible EEG systems, respectively, and receive only array head coils. Data were collected in 11 healthy controls (3 males, age range 18-70 years) and 13 patients with epilepsy (8 males, age range 21-67 years). Three of the healthy controls were scanned with the 256-channel EEG system, the other subjects were scanned with the 64-channel EEG system. Scalp surface temperature, SNR in occipital cortex and head movement were measured with and without the EEG cap. The degree of artifacts and the ability to identify background activity was assessed by visual analysis by a trained expert in the 64 channel EEG data (7 healthy controls, 13 patients).ResultsRF induced heating at the surface of the EEG electrodes during a 30-minute scan period with stable temperature prior to scanning did not exceed 1.0° C with either EEG system and any of the pulse sequences used in this study. There was no significant decrease in cortical SNR due to the presence of the EEG cap (p > 0.05). No significant differences in the visually analyzed EEG data quality were found between EEG recorded during high-speed fMRI and during conventional EPI (p = 0.78). Residual ballistocardiographic artifacts resulted in 58% of EEG data being rated as poor quality.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that high-density EEG can be safely implemented in conjunction with high-speed fMRI and that high-speed fMRI does not adversely affect EEG data quality. However, the deterioration of the EEG quality due to residual ballistocardiographic artifacts remains a significant constraint for routine clinical applications of concurrent EEG-fMRI.

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