Michael H.
Chappell1, Hanne Lehn1, Pl E. Goa2, Anders
Kristoffersen2, Rob L. Tijssen3, Asta Hberg1,
Karla L. Miller3
1ISB, NTNU, Trondheim, Sr Trondelag,
Norway; 2Department of Medical Imaging, St Olavs University
Hospital, Trondheim, Sr Trondelag, Norway; 3Centre for Functional
MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Balanced
SSFP (bSSFP) acquisitions do not suffer from the signal dropout and
distortions that susceptibility gradients can cause in conventional BOLD
imaging. This makes bSSFP a strong candidate for high resolution functional
imaging in regions such as the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Previous studies
have shown that it performs well with visual stimuli and with hypercapnia
across the whole brain. This study uses a novelty paradigm to stimulate
neuronal activity in hippocampal/parahippocampal and visual regions. We
present results with 1.5 mm3 isotropic acquisitions in these regions using
bSSFP.