“Towards functional spin-echo BOLD line-scanning in humans at 7T”.

Luisa Raimondo, Jurjen Heij, Tomas Knapen, Serge O. Dumoulin, Wietske van der Zwaag, Jeroen C.W. Siero

Abstract Objective Neurons cluster into sub-millimeter spatial structures and neural activity occurs at millisecond resolutions; therefore fMRI ultimately requires high spatial and temporal resolution. We implemented a spin-echo line-scanning (SELINE) sequence for high-resolution fMRI. Materials and methods A line is formed by rotating the spin-echo refocusing gradient to a plane perpendicular to the excited slice and removing phase encoding, targeting 250 um spatial and 500 ms temporal resolution with improved microvascular specificity. We compared SELINE with a corresponding gradient-echo version (GELINE). Results SELINE showed much sharper line selection than GELINE, but with a significant drop in functional sensitivity. Discussion This reduced sensitivity must be addressed before broad neuroscientific deployment.