The preferred echo-time (TE) used in most spin-echo EPI (SE-EPI) fMRI studies is approximately the tissue T2 value (65–100ms at 3 T). In this study, we use a hypercapnia paradigm with SE-EPI and three metrics of BOLD-sensitivity to model the TE that maximizes BOLD detection at 3 T. We concluded that while the maximal absolute BOLD contrast occurs near tissue T2 (~75ms), a TE of 55ms both maximizes tissue CNR and minimizes BOLD effects from non-neuronal sources.
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