{
  "abstract": "Blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has advanced brain mapping across species. This widely used technique, however, faces challenges such as acoustic noise, electromagnetic interference, motion artifacts, magnetic-field inhomogeneity and limitations in sensitivity and specificity. Here we introduce Steady-state On-the-Ramp Detection of INduction-decay with Oversampling (SORDINO), an improved zero echo time (ZTE)-based fMRI technique that maintains ultra-low slew rate and acquires data exclusively during gradient direction changes. At 9.4 T, SORDINO outperforms conventional gradient-recalled-echo-based echo-planar imaging and ZTE in metrics crucial for fMRI while being silent, sensitive, specific and resistant to motion and susceptibility artifacts. We showcase SORDINO’s superior compatibility with multimodal experiments and reveal T1-based contrast mechanisms distinct from BOLD that are expected to generalize across ZTE-based fMRI techniques. We further demonstrate SORDINO brain-wide activity and functional connectivity mapping in awake, behaving mice, overcoming stress-related, motion-related and sensitivity-related limitations that remain common barriers in current animal fMRI studies. The authors develop SORDINO, a silent, sensitive and distortion-free fMRI method. They benchmark the technique against conventional approaches, reveal its functional contrast mechanisms and use it to perform brain-wide imaging of skilled motor behavior and social interaction in mice.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA",
    "Center for Animal MRI, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA",
    "Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA",
    "Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA",
    "Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA",
    "Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA",
    "Neuroscience Center and Department of Cell Biology & Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA",
    "Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA",
    "Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. shihy@unc.edu",
    "Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. shihy@unc.edu",
    "Center for Animal MRI, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. shihy@unc.edu",
    "Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. shihy@unc.edu",
    "Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. shihy@unc.edu"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 21,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Martin MacKinnon",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0907-1641"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Sheng Song",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5676-0533"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Tzu-Hao Harry Chao",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0057-6849"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Li‐Ming Hsu",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9296-344X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Scott T. Albert",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9140-1077"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Yuncong Ma",
      "orcid": "0009-0002-0583-3979"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Tatiana A. Shnitko",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7872-7408"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Tzu-Wen Winnie Wang",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3413-7817"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Randy Nonneman"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Clare Freeman",
      "orcid": "0009-0001-1796-4127"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Samuel Booth",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2450-8792"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Siddhi Ozarkar"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "Paul B. Manis",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0131-8961"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Uzay E. Emir",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5376-0431"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Eric R. Muir",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0225-8008"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Mark D. Shen",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1190-7981"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Benjamin D. Philpot",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2746-9143"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Adam W. Hantman",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6563-1423"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Sung‐Ho Lee",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5292-0747"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Wei‐Tang Chang",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2918-1752"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8,
        9,
        10,
        11,
        12
      ],
      "name": "Yen‐Yu Ian Shih",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6529-911X"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/44dh50g03sva1.bib",
  "cited_by": 17,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41593-026-02424-8",
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  "id": "44dh50g03sva1",
  "issns": [
    "1097-6256",
    "1546-1726"
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  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02424-8",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
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  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
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  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC11952411",
  "pmid": "40161795",
  "published": "2026-09-09",
  "publisher": "Nature Portfolio",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/44dh50g03sva1.ris",
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  "title": "SORDINO: silent, sensitive, specific and artifact-resistant fMRI in awake, behaving mice",
  "title_text": "SORDINO: silent, sensitive, specific and artifact-resistant fMRI in awake, behaving mice",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-08T13:20:51Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/44dh50g03sva1",
  "venue": "Nature Neuroscience",
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}