Simultaneous Multi-Slice Spectral-Spatial Excitation for Reduced Signal Loss Artifact in BOLD FMRI

Robert James Anderson¹, Benedikt A. Poser¹, Victor Andrew Stenger¹

Simultaneous Multi-Slice (SMS) imaging methods can increase BOLD fMRI acquisition speeds by factors of four and greater. However, fMRI in the inferior brain still remains difficult due to susceptibility induced signal loss in gradient-echo EPI. Recently, spectral spatial (SPSP) pulses have been shown to correct signal loss in a single excitation. Here we extend the SPSP method to SMS excitations and demonstrate Multi-Band (MB) and Power Independent Number of Slices (PINS) SPSP pulses that are capable of exciting multiple signal-loss corrected slices simultaneously. Using breath-hold fMRI at 3T, we demonstrate that the pulses successfully recover lost signal and activation.