Functional sensitivity of Multiband Echo-planar imaging in subcortical region

Abstract

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is widely used technique for Brain functional connectivity analysis. MRI Acquisition acceleration is a hot area of research from many decades where a number of techniques were suggested. Echo planar imaging (EPI) is one of the most promising acceleration techniques in most fMRI studies. However, advancement to shorten the acquisition time using EPI have been proposed recently and simultaneous multi slice imaging technique is one of the most promising technique allowing acquisition of multiple slices simultaneously yielding an equivalent reduction of time. This technique has recently been using in resting state fMRI studies along with dual regression for group comparison. While the benefit of acquisition time reduction by high multiband acceleration factor (M) appears tempting, sensitivity of resting state network in subcortical region have only been investigated partially. In this study, we therefore used resting state fMRI data of 18 subjects acquired with two different multiband acceleration factors (M=1 and M=4), to investigate sensitivity of default mode network in datasets with increasing acceleration factor. Our results suggest that there is no significant sensitivity difference between common default mode network got from data acquired with both the acceleration factor.