1Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 2School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
Non-balanced SSFP can provide banding artifact free images, with
reduced sensitivity to B1 inhomogeneity and SAR level. Recently,
non-balanced SSFP which is known by the S1 and S2 signals, has been utilized
for fMRI. In this study to model the BOLD contrast in S1- and S2-SSFP fMRI a
Monte Carlo simulation has been performed. It will enable us to accurately
investigate the dependence of the BOLD contrast on vessel size and acquisition
parameters. Results are in accordance with the reported experimental values and
show the increased sensitivity to capillary-sized vessels for only S2 signal.
