TASK ACTIVATION OF THE HUMAN BRAIN STUDIED IN REAL-TIME BY FUNCTIONALMAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING

This paper describes our initial results on functional brain mapping u sing a whole-body clinical magnetic resonance (MR) scanner operating a t 1.5 T and having no echo planar imaging capability. The focus is on the effects of motor cortex stimulation of normal volunteers using a c ircularly polarized head coil when a gradient echo pulse sequence is e mployed. The study demonstrates the technical feasibility of functiona l MR imaging by using conventional gradient echo sequence and equipmen t.