Brainstem BOLD response to visual and acoustic stimuli

Understanding the fundamental roles of brainstem function resulting in proper motor control is critical to motor-rehabilitation after brain injuries. In particular, vestibular and reticular formation nuclei are thought to be associated with spasticity in chronic stroke patients. We used two kinds of stimuli in 10 healthy subjects to activate these nuclei while collecting high-resolution (1.5-mm) fMRI across the majority of brainstem. Optokinetic stimuli evoked illusory self-motion to activate the vestibular nuclei. Acoustic-startle stimuli were sets of loud tones designed to activate of the reticular formation. We summarized the response represented in a form of activation volume, mean percent signal change, and the phase delay (time lag) following the stimulus. We observed patterns of significant activations in the brainstem but did not find significant differences between the stimulus. We conclude that more sensitive measurement techniques are needed to reliably detect vestibular and reticular formation nuclei responses.