Besides being responsible for olfaction and air intake, the nose contains abundant vasculature and autonomic nervous system innervations, and it is a cerebrospinal fluid clearance site. Therefore, the nose is an attractive target for functional MRI (fMRI). Yet, nose fMRI has not been possible so far due to signal losses originating from nasal air-tissue interfaces. Here, we demonstrated feasibility of nose fMRI by using novel ultrashort/zero echo time (TE) MRI. Results obtained in the resting-state from 13 healthy participants at 7T and in 5 awake mice at 9.4T revealed a highly reproducible resting-state nose functional network that likely reflects autonomic nervous system activity. Another network observed in humans involves the nose, major brain vessels and CSF spaces, presenting a temporal dynamic that correlates with heart rate and breathing rate. These resting-state nose functional signals should help elucidate peripheral and central nervous system integrations.

A 1 Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences University of Eastern Finland Kuopio Finland

Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Magnetic Resonance Research Center Yale University New Haven CT US

Department of Radiology Center for Magnetic Resonance Research University of Minnesota Minneapolis MN USA

Division of Biostatistics School of Public Health University of Minnesota Minneapolis MN USA

Neurology General University Hospital Charles University Prague Czech Republic

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