Weiran Deng1, Cungeng Yang1, Vijayanand Alagappan2, Lawrence L. Wald2, V A. Stenger1
1University of Hawaii JABSOM, Honolulu, HI, USA; 2Harvard University Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA
Susceptibility-induced gradients at the air/tissue interface above the sinus regions create signal voids in axial slices of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in BOLD fMRI. We present a parallel transmission technique to recover signal in the OFC with a customized four-channel TR array. A slice-selection pulse with a unique time shift is applied into each channel. Signal recovery and increased BOLD activation in the OFC is demonstrated during a breath-holding task at 3T.