Enhanced fMRI Using a Novel 3D Ultrafast Gradient-echo-based Sequence Using Spatiotemporal Encoding.

We recently introduced a novel ultrafast 3D gradient-echo-based imaging technique using spatiotemporal encoding (SPEN), which was dubbed RASE (Rapid Acquisition with Sequential Excitation). RASE has less sensitivity to field inhomogeneities and susceptibility differences compared to conventional multi-slice GE-EPI, sharing the advantages of 3D imaging such as high signal-to-noise ratio and high spatial resolution. In this preliminary study, we present very promising results of RASE-II fMRI, i.e., better t-scores, tSNR, and BOLD percent-signal-changes than conventional multi-slice GE-EPI, on a 9.4-T animal scanner.