Towards Combining Prospective Motion Correction and Distortion Correction for EPI

Rainer Boegle¹, Julian Maclaren¹, Maxim Zaitsev¹

Subject head motion is a serious confound in fMRI, limiting its image quality and applicability. To lift this restriction for EPI based fMRI the combination of prospective motion correction with distortion correction based on field maps, calculated from the subjects susceptibility distribution and pose, has been proposed. Here we present a proof-of-concept phantom study demonstrating the significance of motion dependent distortions in prospective motion correction and the feasibility of their correction via a field prediction method. Additionally comparative field simulations are shown, which suggest that a 'simple segmentation' of a human head would be sufficient for in vivo correction.