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Abstract #1629

T2- & T2*-Weighted High-Resolution fMRI at 7T using Non-Balanced SSFP

Pl Erik Goa1,2, Peter Jan Koopmans2,3, Benedikt Andreas Poser2,3, Markus Barth2,3, David Gordon Norris2,3

1Department of Medical Imaging, St.Olav University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway; 2Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; 3Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition & Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands


Non-balanced Steady-state free precession (nb-SSFP) might be an alternative for BOLD-fMRI at 7T. Here we compare the functional signal change at the pial surface and within grey matter for S1 and S2 using multi-echo nb-SSFP at high spatial resolution. Eight subjects were scanned using a checkerboard paradigm, and tissue-specific signal changes were extracted based on segmentation of MP-RAGE images. Results show that the signal change is largest at the pial surface in S1 at both short and long TE as well as in S2. This might indicate intravascular blood is contributing to the functional contrast also at 7T.