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Abstract #2987

Evaluation of Point Spread Function and Functional Sensitivity of 3D-GRASE and 2D Spin-Echo EPI for Sub-Millimeter-Resolution fMRI at 7 T

Valentin G. Kemper 1 , Federico De Martino 1 , An T. Vu 2 , Benedikt A. Poser 1 , David A. Feinberg 3,4 , Essa Yacoub 2 , and Rainer Goebel 1

1 Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands, 2 Radiology, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, 3 Helen Wills Institute of Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, United States, 4 Advanced MRI Technologies, California, United States

3D Inner Volume GRASE (3D-GRASE) and Spin-Echo EPI (2D SE-EPI) sequences were compared with regard to sensitivity and resolution in the context of sub-millimeter functional MRI at 7 T. Theoretical simulations, acquisitions with phase encoding turned off, and analysis of residual noise correlations showed that the point spread in slice direction in 3D-GRASE is comparable to the point spread of 2D SE-EPI in phase encoding direction with commonly employed acquisition parameters and reconstructions. t-values of functional activity in a simple visual activation experiment were higher in 3D-GRASE acquisitions due to better temporal signal to noise ratio.

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