Nicholas P. Blockley1,
Valerie E M Griffeth1, Richard B. Buxton1
1Center for fMRI,
Department of Radiology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA,
USA
The calibrated BOLD technique typically uses a respiratory challenge to measure the calibration constant M. This is both time consuming and uncomfortable for the participant. Here we consider the possibility of determining M using measurements of R2′ made using an asymmetric spin echo experiment without administering any gases. The key question in this hypothesis is what fraction of the R2* change on activation can be captured by R2′ measurements in the baseline state?