Bradley P. Sutton1,2, Charles A. Conway1, David P. Kuehn3
1Bioengineering Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; 2Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; 3Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
A pulse sequence is developed that acquires images of dynamic movement of the tongue during speech or swallowing simultaneously with the acquisition of functional MRI data. A single midsagittal dynamic slice is acquired at 16 frames per second while several oblique axial functional slices are acquired with lower temporal resolution and functional MRI contrast. The acquisition allows for real-time monitoring of task performance without the need for, or interference from, additional monitoring hardware. The sequence is shown to detect similar activations of the primary motor cortex in a self-paced compared to a cued tongue-tapping task.