INVESTIGATION OF BOLD CONTRAST IN FMRI USING MULTISHOT EPI

High resolution volume coverage of the brain in fMRI studies can be ac complished using multi-slice, multi-shot EPI, We demonstrate that the optimum contrast sensitivity in BOLD based fMRI experiments using mult i-shot EPI is achieved by using the shortest possible TR values beween segments and the longest tolerable echo train length, For a fixed par adigm time, acquiring the largest number of images under these conditi ons yields the best statistical detection thresholds, For a multi-slic e multi-shot EPI fMRI study, the best approach is to perform the acqui sition of all the segments in a single slice before continuing on to e ach of the slices in turn, Our results regarding the number of shots a nd TR are also applicable to other multi-shot techniques such as inter leaved spirals. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.