Time-Interleaved Imaging of Arbitrary Scan Planes Applied to Real-Time Speech MRI

Yoon-Chul Kim¹, Michael I. Proctor¹, Shrikanth S. Narayanan¹, Krishna S. Nayak¹

Real-time MRI of speech typically involves imaging a single midsagittal slice. This approach has provided valuable insights into the dynamics of vocal tract shaping and motion of all major articulators. In this work, we acquire multiple arbitrary scan planes in time-interleaved fashion, which provides the ability to capture new features such as grooving/doming of the tongue, asymmetries in tongue shape, and lateral shaping of the pharyngeal wall. This approach also facilitates tracking of the slice plane based on partial saturation effects.