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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDNature Neuroscience

SORDINO: silent, sensitive, specific and artifact-resistant fMRI in awake, behaving mice

  • Martin MacKinnon1,2,3,4
  • Sheng Song1,2,4
  • Tzu-Hao Harry Chao1,2,4
  • Li‐Ming Hsu1,2,4,5
  • Scott T. Albert6,7
  • Yuncong Ma1,2,4
  • Tatiana A. Shnitko1,2,4
  • Tzu-Wen Winnie Wang1,2
  • Randy Nonneman1,2,4
  • Clare Freeman6,7
  • Samuel Booth1,2,4
  • Siddhi Ozarkar6,7
9 more authors
  • Paul B. Manis8
  • Uzay E. Emir1,2,3,5
  • Eric R. Muir1,2,5
  • Mark D. Shen6,7
  • Benjamin D. Philpot6,7
  • Adam W. Hantman6,7
  • Sung‐Ho Lee1,2,4
  • Wei‐Tang Chang1,5
  • Yen‐Yu Ian Shih9,10,11,12,13
13 affiliations
  1. 1Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  2. 2Center for Animal MRI, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  3. 3Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  4. 4Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  5. 5Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  6. 6Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  7. 7Neuroscience Center and Department of Cell Biology & Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  8. 8Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
  9. 9Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. [email protected]
  10. 10Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. [email protected]
  11. 11Center for Animal MRI, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. [email protected]
  12. 12Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. [email protected]
  13. 13Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. [email protected]
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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.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{mackinnon2026sordino,
  title = {{SORDINO: silent, sensitive, specific and artifact-resistant fMRI in awake, behaving mice}},
  author = {Martin MacKinnon and Sheng Song and Tzu-Hao Harry Chao and Li‐Ming Hsu and Scott T. Albert and Yuncong Ma and Tatiana A. Shnitko and Tzu-Wen Winnie Wang and Randy Nonneman and Clare Freeman and Samuel Booth and Siddhi Ozarkar and Paul B. Manis and Uzay E. Emir and Eric R. Muir and Mark D. Shen and Benjamin D. Philpot and Adam W. Hantman and Sung‐Ho Lee and Wei‐Tang Chang and Yen‐Yu Ian Shih},
  journal = {Nature Neuroscience},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1038/s41593-026-02424-8},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02424-8},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - SORDINO: silent, sensitive, specific and artifact-resistant fMRI in awake, behaving mice
AU  - Martin MacKinnon
AU  - Sheng Song
AU  - Tzu-Hao Harry Chao
AU  - Li‐Ming Hsu
AU  - Scott T. Albert
AU  - Yuncong Ma
AU  - Tatiana A. Shnitko
AU  - Tzu-Wen Winnie Wang
AU  - Randy Nonneman
AU  - Clare Freeman
AU  - Samuel Booth
AU  - Siddhi Ozarkar
AU  - Paul B. Manis
AU  - Uzay E. Emir
AU  - Eric R. Muir
AU  - Mark D. Shen
AU  - Benjamin D. Philpot
AU  - Adam W. Hantman
AU  - Sung‐Ho Lee
AU  - Wei‐Tang Chang
AU  - Yen‐Yu Ian Shih
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/09
JO  - Nature Neuroscience
DO  - 10.1038/s41593-026-02424-8
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02424-8
AB  - 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.
SN  - 1097-6256
SN  - 1546-1726
ER  -