Lag-Optimized Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent Cerebrovascular Reactivity Estimates Derived From Breathing Task Data Have a Stronger Relationship With Baseline Cerebral Blood Flow
Published: 15 June 2022Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), an important indicator of cerebrovascular health,
is commonly studied with the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent functional MRI
(BOLD-fMRI) response to a vasoactive stimulus. Theoretical and empirical evidence
suggests that baseline cerebral blood flow (CBF) modulates BOLD signal amplitude
and may influence BOLD-CVR estimates. We address how acquisition and modeling
choices affect the relationship between baseline cerebral blood flow (bCBF) and
BOLD-CVR: whether BOLD-CVR is modeled with the inclusion of a breathing task,
and whether BOLD-CVR amplitudes are optimized for hemodynamic lag effects. We
assessed between-subject correlations of average GM values and within-subject spatial
correlations across cortical regions. Our results suggest that a breathing task addition to
a resting-state acquisition, alongside lag-optimization within BOLD-CVR modeling, can
improve BOLD-CVR correlations with bCBF, both between- and within-subjects, likely
because these CVR estimates are more physiologically accurate. We report positive
correlations between bCBF and BOLD-CVR, both between- and within-subjects. The
physiological explanation of this positive correlation is unclear; research with larger
samples and tightly controlled vasoactive stimuli is needed. Insights into what drives
variability in BOLD-CVR measurements and related measurements of cerebrovascular
function are particularly relevant when interpreting results in populations with altered
vascular and/or metabolic baselines or impaired cerebrovascular reserve.This work was supported by the Center for Translational Imaging
at Northwestern University. The authors disclosed receipt of
the following financial support for the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by
the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health
[K12HD073945]. KZ was supported by an NIH-funded training
program [T32EB025766]. SM was supported by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [Marie
Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 713673] and a fellowship
from La Caixa Foundation [ID 100010434, fellowship code
LCF/BQ/IN17/11620063]. CC-G was supported by the Spanish
Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [Ramon y Cajal
Fellowship, RYC2017-21845], the Basque Government [BERC
2018-2021 and PIBA_2019_104], and the Spanish Ministry
of Science, Innovation and Universities [MICINN; PID2019-
105520GB-100]