Abstract #3323

Comparison of SSFP and Multiband EPI in Functional MRI at 7 Tesla

Zhongwei Chen¹, Rong Xue², Danny J.J. Wang³

¹State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chaoyang District, Beijing, China; ²State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China; ³Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States

In this study, we systematically evaluated the sensitivity of 4 emerging fMRI methods including fast gradient echo (GRE), passband and transition band balanced steady-state free precession (SSFP), and multiband EPI to visual cortex stimulation at 7 Tesla using both block and event-related designs. Our results showed that GRE and passband SSFP provide the highest functional sensitivity (peak and mean t-value) and can reliably detect initial dip in hemodynamic response function curves. We also found that transition band SSFP has the most sensitivity to physiological noise.