Abstract #1084

Automatic Functional and Anatomical Registration for FMRI Using Optimized 3D Flyback Echo Planar Imaging

Thomas Sushil John¹, Michael Lustig^2,3, John Mark Pauly²

¹Electrical Engineering , Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; ²Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; ³Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States

Echo planar imaging (EPI) is the most widely used method for functional MRI. However, functional images are often distorted because EPI is highly sensitive to field inhomogeneities, eddy currents, and gradient delays. Functional and neuro-anatomical registration is complicated by these distortions and by the fact that functional and anatomical images are usually obtained with different imaging sequences. This work investigates the use of an optimized 3D flyback EPI trajectory with echo time shifting to obtain functional and anatomical images that have minimal distortions and are inherently co-registered.