Abstract #3578

GRASE Functional MRI with Asymmetric Spin-Echo

Lirong Yan¹, Robert P. Spunt², Emily Kilroy¹, Matthias Gunther³, Matthew D. Lieberman², Danny J. J. Wang¹

¹Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ²Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ³Fraunhofer MEVIS-Institute for Medical Image Computing, Bremen, Germany

Although gradient-echo EPI is widely used for BOLD fMRI, it suffers from susceptibility artifacts, and the temporal resolution is generally on the order of 2 to 3s for whole brain coverage. In the present study, we used 3D GRASE with asymmetric spin-echo (ASE) for fMRI with a temporal resolution of 1s per brain volume. Compared to standard 2D EPI, GRASE with ASE not only achieved superior sensitivity in visual cortex activation, but also uniquely detected prefrontal activation during a Go/No-Go task.