Effects of mild hypoxic hypoxia on poststimulus undershoot of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent fMRI signal in the human visual cortex

Characteristics of the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal poststimulus undershoot in the visual cortex were studied at varying levels of arterial blood oxygen saturation (Ysat). Undershoot with an amplitude of −0.6±0.2% appeared after positive BOLD response (+1.7±0.5%) under control conditions. Cerebral blood volume (CBV), as determined with vascular-space-occupancy-dependent fMRI, increased by 26–43% during the positive BOLD peak, but the CBV proceeded at baseline level during the BOLD poststimulus undershoot. Mild hypoxic hypoxia (Ysat ranging from 0.82 to 0.89) had no effect on the amplitude or duration of poststimulus undershoot in activated BOLD pixels. Hypoxia did not influence CBV during the BOLD poststimulus undershoot. In contrast, the positive BOLD signal at the level of all activated pixels was smaller in hypoxia than in normoxia. The present results show that the BOLD poststimulus undershoot is not influenced by curtailed oxygen availability and that, during the undershoot, CBV is not different from resting state.