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Analysis of the BOLD characteristics in pass‐band bSSFP fMRI
Author(s) -
Kim Taek Soo,
Lee Jongho,
Lee Jin Hyung,
Glover Gary H.,
Pauly John M.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of imaging systems and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.359
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1098-1098
pISSN - 0899-9457
DOI - 10.1002/ima.21296
Subject(s) - contrast (vision) , functional magnetic resonance imaging , computer science , sensitivity (control systems) , magnetic resonance imaging , blood oxygenation , communication noise , nuclear magnetic resonance , materials science , artificial intelligence , physics , neuroscience , medicine , radiology , electronic engineering , psychology , engineering , linguistics , philosophy
Abstract Balanced steady‐state free precession (bSSFP) has been proposed as an alternative method to acquire the blood oxygenation level dependent contrast. Particularly, pass‐band bSSFP functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is believed to utilize the T 2 sensitivity of bSSFP in a relatively wide and flat off‐resonance frequency band of the bSSFP profile. The method has a potential to provide higher signal to noise ratio (SNR) efficiency with reduced imaging artifacts compared to conventional approaches. Previous experimental results suggested that the level of the functional contrast and its characteristics are significantly influenced by the sequence parameters. However, few of these contrast characteristics have been investigated systematically. In this study, a computer simulation was performed to investigate the sources of functional contrast and the influence of scan parameters on the functional contrast to elucidate the contrast characteristics of pass‐band bSSFP fMRI. Experiments were performed to validate the simulation results. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 22, 23–32, 2012