DESIGN AND EFFICACY OF A HEAD-COIL BITE BAR FOR REDUCING MOVEMENT-RELATED ARTIFACTS DURING FUNCTIONAL MRI SCANNING

This article describes the design, construction, application, and effe ctiveness of a simple bite bar for use with an MRI whole-head coil to reduce head-movement-related artifacts during functional brain imaging . The device is comfortable to use and allows considerable flexibility in positioning the subject's head. Eleven subjects were scanned while performing a motor-sequencing experiment with and without the bite ba r. The bite bar was generally effective in reducing maximum head movem ent to less than 0.5 mm (translation) and 0.5 degrees (rotation).