T2-Weighted BOLD fMRI at 9.4 T Using a S2-SSFP-EPI Sequence

Philipp Ehses¹, ², Juliane Budde¹, Gunamony Shajan¹, Klaus Scheffler¹, ²

It has been hypothesized that T₂-weighted BOLD fMRI at ultra-high field shows higher spatial specificity than T₂*-weighted BOLD, since the main signal contribution is expected to come from the extravascular spins of the microvasculature. Unfortunately, the number of slices that can be acquired in multi-slice SE-EPI is limited at ultra-high field due to SAR constraints. T₂-weighted steady-state sequences, such as S₂-SSFP, have been previously used as an alternative to spin-echo based BOLD fMRI. In this work, we present a 3D S₂-SSFP sequence that is accelerated using an EPI readout and show first results from finger tapping experiments at 9.4 T.