2D Parallel Imaging with RASER for True Whole Brain fMRI at 7 T

Ute Goerke¹, Craig Moodie², Krista Wisner², Angus MacDonald III²

As previously reported RASER provides excellent fMRI activation maps in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in humans without suffering from the typical blurring and signal loss of echo-planar images due to magnetic field variations near air-tissue interfaces. In the presented work, a novel 2D parallel imaging approach for RASER is implemented to achieve whole brain coverage with acceptable spatiotemporal resolution for fMRI. In order to demonstrate that the ability to detect activation near air cavities with accelerated RASER is retained a 7 T fMRI study was performed using a working memory task modulated with gains and losses showing reliable activation in the OFC.