Yu Cai1, Qingwei Liu2, Mark
Woods1, Craig Hamilton3, Hongyu An2
1Advanced Imaging Research
Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States; 2University
of North Carolina atg Chapel Hill; 3Wake Forest University
The current Point Spread Function (PSF) mapping technique uses an extra 2-3 min of scan time to acquire a PSF map for echo planar imaging (EPI) distortion correction, based on prevalent EPI acquisition parameters used in fMRI studies. However, when a subject moves during scanning the PSF map may not for the most appropriate method of distortion correction. A dual EPI readout train acquisition strategy has been developed that improves the performance of PSF map correction. This strategy embeds the PSF acquisition into the gradient echo EPI acquisition without increasing scan time synchronizes with the EPI acquisition.