Towards mapping CSF volume change at high resolutions at 7T

Motivation: We seek to develop a method for using fMRI to capture how CSF volume changes in the human brain, specifically at different states of physiology, neural activity, and drowsiness. Goal(s): We aim to differentiate volume changes of blood versus CSF using our multi-echo and multi-inversion fMRI data. Approach: We use a high-resolution multi-inversion and multi-echo 7T 3D-EPI protocol on healthy human volunteers. We collect eye tracking and respiratory data. In the future, we aim to collect EEG data. Results: We found that our novel sequence can successfully track functional changes in CSF volume, concomitantly with CBV (VASO) and BOLD. Impact: We present a method to capture dynamic CSF volume changes independent of CBV and BOLD during different states of neural activity and drowsiness. This could aid research on CSF's role in waste removal from the brain in diseases like Alzheimer's.