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Abstract #3443

FMRI of the Medial Temporal Lobe Using Balanced Steady State Free Precession

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.

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