CBV-sensitive layer-fMRI in the human auditory cortex at 7T: Challenges and capabilities

The development of ultra high field (UHF) fMRI has led to the possibility of imaging the brain at increasingly higher resolutions. Gradient-echo blood oxygen level dependent (GE-BOLD) imaging is the conventional approach for submillimeter functional studies at UHF, despite its reduced specificity due to its susceptibility to both the micro- and the macrovasculature. For investigations of cortical regions other than the auditory cortex, a contrast mechanism based on measuring differences in cerebral blood volume (CBV), named vascular space occupancy (VASO), has been shown to be less influenced by the macrovasculature.
This dataset includes functional MRI time series of both GE-BOLD and VASO used to test a VASO imaging protocol for auditory neuroscientific applications.