Abstract #0064

Use of T2-weighted 3D acquisition for correction of EPI-induced distortion in fMRI

Andrea Nordio^1,2,3, Denis Peruzzo², Filippo Arrigoni², Fabio Triulzi^2,4, and Alessandra Bertoldo^1,2

¹Department of Information Engineering (DEI), University of Padova, Padova, Italy, ²IRCCS E.Medea, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy, ³IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy, ⁴IRCCS Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore, Policlinico, Milano, Italy

Echo Planar Imaging (EPI) sequences used for acquiring fMRI time series data have a high temporal resolution but are also highly sensitive to the magnetic field inhomogeneity resulting in geometric distortions. In this work we propose an approach for correction of EPI distortion in fMRI sequences. Our method takes advantage of a non-distorted T2-weighted (T2W) 3D sequence as intermediate step between the acquired fMRI data and the anatomical image. This strategy allows to use non-linear registration functions. We validated our method on a group of healty subjects during finger-tapping task, proving that the proposed method significantly improves the group analysis results of functional data.

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