pubmed-article:17133396 | pubmed:abstractText | Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) depends on the coupling of cerebral blood flow, energy demand, and neural activity. The precise nature of this interaction, however, is poorly understood. A positive correlation between BOLD-response and cortically generated local field potentials, which reflect the weighted average of synchronized dentrosomatic components of pyramidal synaptic signals, has been demonstrated. Likewise, positive BOLD-responses have been reported in conjunction with scalp-recorded synchronized electromagnetic activity by a number of groups. However, it is not yet clear how the opposite electromagnetic pattern, i.e. cortical desynchronization, is related to the BOLD signal. To address this question, we conducted a combined event-related fMRI and 275 sensor whole-head MEG study during identical visual two-choice reaction time task conditions in 10 human subjects. We found complex sequences of MEG-synchronization and desynchronization across a wide frequency range in the visual and motor area in close correspondence with "locales" of positive BOLD-responses. These results indicate that a correspondence of positive BOLD-responses is not exclusively found for cortical synchronization but also for desynchronization, suggesting that the relationship between BOLD signals and electromagnetic activity might be more complex than previously thought. | lld:pubmed |