Functional MR angiography with 7.0 T: Is direct observation of arterial response during neural activity possible?

We propose a new type of functional imaging in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a functional MR angiography (fMRA). As it is known, arterial responses during neural activities have been studied in animals, but little is known about the human brain in-vivo. Proposed fMRA at ultra-high field strength, 7.0 Tesla (T), has a potential for a direct visualization of vascular responses of those blood vessels related to the neural activity during the tasks, such as the hand movement or checker board stimulation, that is, fMRA. The results of this paper clearly indicate that there is the possibility that one can directly observe the vascular changes in individual blood vessels related to the tasks in human brain in-vivo, similar to fMRI.