AUTHOR=Kumar Vinod Jangir , Scheffler Klaus , Hagberg Gisela E. , Grodd Wolfgang 

TITLE=Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping of the Basal Ganglia and Thalamus at 9.4 Tesla

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroanatomy

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroanatomy/articles/10.3389/fnana.2021.725731

DOI=10.3389/fnana.2021.725731

ISSN=1662-5129

ABSTRACT=The thalamus and basal ganglia are central sub-cortical connectivity hubs of the human brain, whose functional anatomy is still under intense investigation. Nevertheless, both substructures contain a robust and reproducible functional anatomy. The quantitative susceptibility mapping at ultra-high field may facilitate the improved characterization of the underlying functional anatomy in-vivo. We acquired high-resolution QSM data at 9.4 Tesla in 21 subjects and analyzed the thalamic and basal ganglia using a prior defined functional parcellation. We found a more substantial contribution of paramagnetic susceptibility sources, like iron, in the pallidum in contrast to the caudate, putamen, and thalamus in descending order. The diamagnetic susceptibility sources, such as myelin and calcium, revealed significant contributions in the thalamus parcels compared to the basal gan-glia. The study presents a detailed nuclei-specific delineation of QSM provided diamagnetic and paramagnetic susceptibility sources pronounced in the basal ganglia and the thalamus. We also found a reasonable interindividual variability as well as slight hemispheric differences. The results presented here contribute to the microstructural knowledge of the thalamus and basal ganglia.