Tom Zeffiro

 

The ultimate success of any fMRI experiment depends fundamentally on the quality of the collected image data. Of the many possible acquisition parameter selections, there are a few that can strongly influence a functional neuroimaging experiment's sensitivity in detecting patterns of task-related activity. They include MRI system static field strength, head coil design, echo time, repetition time, voxel dimensions, slice acquiisition order, slice angle, shim adequacy and session length.

 

 

 

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References

 

GENERAL

 

J Magn Reson Imaging. 2006 Jun;23(6):794-807.
Principles of magnetic resonance assessment of brain function.
Norris DG.

 

Exp Brain Res. 1998 Nov;123(1-2):5-12.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the human brain: data acquisition and
analysis.
Turner R, Howseman A, Rees GE, Josephs O, Friston K.

 

FIELD STRENGTH

 

Magn Reson Med. 1993 Feb;29(2):277-9. Functional mapping of the human visual cortex at 4 and 1.5 tesla using deoxygenation contrast EPI. Turner R, Jezzard P, Wen H, Kwong KK, Le Bihan D, Zeffiro T, Balaban RS.

 

Acad Radiol. 2005 Feb;12(2):142-7.
Magnetic field strength increase yields significantly greater contrast-to-noise
ratio increase: Measured using BOLD contrast in the primary visual area.
Okada T, Yamada H, Ito H, Yonekura Y, Sadato N.

 

Neuroimage. 2005 May 15;26(1):243-50. Comparison of physiological noise at 1.5 T, 3 T and 7 T and optimization of fMRI acquisition parameters. Triantafyllou C, Hoge RD, Krueger G, Wiggins CJ, Potthast A, Wiggins GC, Wald LL.

 

Neuroimage. 2003 Apr;18(4):813-26.
Comparison of fMRI activation at 3 and 1.5 T during perceptual, cognitive, and
affective processing.
Krasnow B, Tamm L, Greicius MD, Yang TT, Glover GH, Reiss AL, Menon V.

 

MAGMA. 2008 Mar;21(1-2):113-20. Epub 2007 Dec 18.
High resolution SE-fMRI in humans at 3 and 7 T using a motor task.
Schäfer A, van der Zwaag W, Francis ST, Head KE, Gowland PA, Bowtell RW.

 

HEAD COILS

 

Phys Med Biol. 2007 Apr 7;52(7):R15-55. Epub 2007 Mar 9.
Parallel magnetic resonance imaging.
Larkman DJ, Nunes RG.

 

Magn Reson Med. 2006 Jul;56(1):216-23. 32-channel 3 Tesla receive-only phased-array head coil with soccer-ball element geometry. Wiggins GC, Triantafyllou C, Potthast A, Reykowski A, Nittka M, Wald LL.

 

Eur Radiol. 2005 Aug;15(8):1555-62. Epub 2005 Apr 23.
Comparison of volume, four- and eight-channel head coils using standard and parallel imaging.
Gizewski ER, Maderwald S, Wanke I, Goehde S, Forsting M, Ladd ME.

 

ECHO TIME

 

Neuroimage. 2002 Jan;15(1):136-42.
Echo time dependence of BOLD contrast and susceptibility artifacts.
Gorno-Tempini ML, Hutton C, Josephs O, Deichmann R, Price C, Turner R.

 

J Magn Reson Imaging. 2004 Jan;19(1):19-26.
EPI-BOLD fMRI of human motor cortex at 1.5 T and 3.0 T: sensitivity dependence on
echo time and acquisition bandwidth.
Fera F, Yongbi MN, van Gelderen P, Frank JA, Mattay VS, Duyn JH.

 

REPETITION TIME

 

Magn Reson Med. 2001 Oct;46(4):748-55.
Repetition time in echo planar functional MRI.
Constable RT, Spencer DD.

 

VOXEL DIMENSIONS

 

MAGMA. 2008 Jul;21(4):279-90. Epub 2008 Jul 26.
The impact of EPI voxel size on SNR and BOLD sensitivity in the anterior
medio-temporal lobe: a comparative group study of deactivation of the Default
Mode.
Robinson SD, Pripfl J, Bauer H, Moser E.

 

SLICE ACQUISITION ORDER

Neuroimage. 1999 Apr;9(4):363-76.
The effect of slice order and thickness on fMRI activation data using multislice echo-planar imaging. Howseman AM, Grootoonk S, Porter DA, Ramdeen J, Holmes AP, Turner R.

 

SLICE ANGLE

 

FIELD MAP

 

Hum Brain Mapp. 1999;8(2-3):80-5.
Sources of distortion in functional MRI data.
Jezzard P, Clare S.

 

Neuroimage. 2002 May;16(1):217-40.
Image distortion correction in fMRI: A quantitative evaluation.
Hutton C, Bork A, Josephs O, Deichmann R, Ashburner J, Turner R.

 

Neuroimage. 2003 Jan;18(1):127-42.
An evaluation of the use of magnetic field maps to undistort echo-planar images.
Cusack R, Brett M, Osswald K.

 

SESSION LENGTH

 

Neuroimage. 2008 Jan 1;39(1):261-8. Epub 2007 Aug 19.
Power calculation for group fMRI studies accounting for arbitrary design and
temporal autocorrelation.
Mumford JA, Nichols TE.

 

Neuroimage. 2007 Sep 1;37(3):721-30. Epub 2007 Jun 18.
Power and sample size calculation for neuroimaging studies by non-central random
field theory.
Hayasaka S, Peiffer AM, Hugenschmidt CE, Laurienti PJ.