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MRI-based localization of electrophysiological recording sites within the cerebral cortex at single-voxel accuracy

Nature Methods volume 4, pages 161–168 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The localization of microelectrode recording sites in the layers of primate cerebral cortex permits the analysis of relationships between recorded neuronal activities and underlying anatomical connections. We present a magnetic resonance imaging method for precise in vivo localization of cortical recording sites. In this method, the susceptibility-induced effect thickens the appearance of the microelectrode and enhances the detectability of the microelectrode tip, which usually occupies less than a few percent of the volume of an image voxel. In a phantom study, the optimized susceptibility-induced effect allowed tip detection with single-voxel accuracy (in-plane resolution, 50 μm). We applied this method to recording microelectrodes inserted into the brains of macaque monkeys, and localized the microelectrode tip at an in-plane resolution of 150 μm within the cortex of 2–3 mm in thickness. Subsequent histological analyses validated the single-voxel accuracy of the in vivo tip localization. This method opens up a way to investigate information flow during cognitive processes in the brain.

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Figure 1: Development and concept of our MRI-based in vivo localization method.
Figure 2: Effects of B0 angle and frequency encoding direction.
Figure 3: Effects of in-plane resolution and other scan parameters.
Figure 4: Localization of the microelectrode tip within the monkey cortex.
Figure 5: Localization accuracy of the microelectrode tip within the cortex.
Figure 6: Stability of the microelectrode tip position across days on in vivo MR images.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Watanabe for technical assistance and M. Kinoshita for helpful comments on the development of the nonmagnetic mini-manipulator. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research from Ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to Y.M (14002005), a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from MEXT to K.N. (17500202) and Y.N. (15500206), and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Fellowships for Young Scientists to K.W.K (1711962) and M.K. (1511804) and by Takeda Science Foundation.

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Author notes

  1. Teppei Matsui

    Present address: Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712, USA

  2. Minoru Koyama

    Present address: Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14850, USA

  3. Kiyoshi Nakahara

    Present address: National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8502, Japan

  4. Yuji Naya

    Present address: Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, Washington Place, Room 809, New York, New York, 10003, USA

  5. Teppei Matsui and Kenji W Koyano: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, The University of Tokyo School of Medicine, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, 113-0033, Tokyo, Japan

    Teppei Matsui, Kenji W Koyano, Minoru Koyama, Kiyoshi Nakahara, Masaki Takeda, Yohei Ohashi, Yuji Naya & Yasushi Miyashita

  2. Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo School of Science, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, 113-0033, Tokyo, Japan

    Teppei Matsui & Yasushi Miyashita

  3. PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan

    Kiyoshi Nakahara

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Correspondence to Yasushi Miyashita.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

A non-magnetic microdrive mini-manipulator for microelectrode implantation.

Supplementary Table 1

Scan parameters for magnetic resonance imaging of the phantom in vitro.

Supplementary Table 2

Scan parameters for magnetic resonance imaging of the monkeys in vivo.

Supplementary Table 3

Scan parameters for in vivo stability test of microelectrode position across days.

Supplementary Methods

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Matsui, T., Koyano, K., Koyama, M. et al. MRI-based localization of electrophysiological recording sites within the cerebral cortex at single-voxel accuracy. Nat Methods 4, 161–168 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth987

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