Submillimeter balanced SSFP BOLD–functional MRI accelerated with 3D stack‐of‐spirals at 9.4 T

Purpose This work aims to improve the speed of balanced SSFP (bSSFP) acquisition with segmented 3D stack‐of‐spirals for functional brain studies at ultrahigh field. Methods Functional experiments were performed with an accelerated 3D stack‐of‐spirals sequence with water excitation for fat suppression. The resulting data were reconstructed using an iterative algorithm with corrections for system imperfections such as trajectory deviations and B0 inhomogeneity. In the first set of experiments, we evaluated the signal change and stability with respect to echo and TR for a full‐field checkerboard stimulus. To demonstrate the high spatio‐temporal resolution of the developed method, the results of three optimized protocols at submillimeter resolution (0.6‐mm isotropic and 0.8‐mm isotropic) and at 1.2 mm isotropic resolution for whole‐brain coverage were shown. Results Water excitation and the model‐based iterative reconstruction improved image quality. The BOLD‐related signal changes increased with longer TE and longer TR. We observed an increase in thermal noise performance at lower TE and higher TR. However, signal stability deteriorates at higher TE and TR. Therefore, optimized protocols used shorter TE and moderately long TR to maximize the sensitivity and speed. Reproducible activations were detected along the gray‐matter gyri in the submillimeter protocols with a median signal change of approximately 4% across subjects. Conclusions Three‐dimensional stack‐of‐spirals enables passband balanced SSFP functional imaging at a much higher spatial and temporal scale, compared with conventional spoiled gradient‐echo train sequences.