On the Quality, Statistical Efficiency, and Safety of Simultaneously Recorded Multiband fMRI/EEG

The recent development of multiband functional magnetic resonance imaging (MB-fMRI) allows for the reduction of sampling period by simultaneously exciting multiple slices—the number of which is referred to as the multiband factor. Simultaneously recorded electroencephalography (EEG)/MB-fMRI has yet to be validated for data quality against conventional single band (SB)-fMRI. Pilot scans were conducted on phantoms twice and on a healthy volunteer to ensure no heating effects. In the main study, two thermometer probes were attached to 16 healthy individuals (ages 20–39, 9 females) whilst they completed two sets of 16-min resting-state and two sets of 9-min n -back task scans—each set consisting of one MB4 and one SB pulse sequence. No heating effects were reported and thermometer data showed mean increases of