1Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, 2Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
In
BOLD fMRI, gradient-echo and spin-echo pulse sequences have been widely used
due to their higher functional sensitivity and spatial specificity, however,
fair comparison between SE and GRE methods has often not been made properly. In
this study, we defined "functional resolution" as a quantitative
metric to evaluate spatial specificity of BOLD contrast fMRI and measured it in
SE, asymmetric spin-echo, and GRE. Then we conducted spatial smoothing to
equalize their functional resolution and compare their functional sensitivity
under the equivalent conditions.
