Functional Connectivity Analysis: Performance Comparison of Gradient and Spin Echo EPI Simultaneously Acquired

Resting state functional connectivity is an attractive tool to study affective and mood disorders. Gradient-echo EPI (GRE-EPI) is affected by strong signal drops in brain regions critical for emotional processing. Spin-echo EPI (SE-EPI) is known to not suffer from this problem. Here, we use a Hybrid EPI pulse sequence to simultaneously acquire both the GRE-EPI and the SE-EPI. The comparison of both acquisition methods shows that meaningful signal fluctuations can be recovered in susceptibility affected brain regions using SE-EPI, while minor differences in functional connectivity were observed for unaffected brain areas. Furthermore, GRE-EPI is more prone to global signal artefacts.

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