High-Resolution Functional Imaging at 7T

Participants were scanned on a research-dedicated Siemens 7T Magnetom scanner in the Clinical Research Center on the National Institutes of Health Campus (Bethesda, MD). Partial T2*-weighted functional image volumes were acquired using a gradient echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence with a 32-channel head coil (47 slices; 1.6 × 1.6×1.6 mm; 10% interslice gap; TR, 2 s; TE, 27 ms; matrix size, 126 × 126; FOV, 192 mm). Oblique slices were oriented approximately parallel to the base of the temporal lobe and were positioned such that they covered the occipital, temporal, and parietal cortices, and as much as possible of frontal cortex. After the functional imaging runs, standard MPRAGE (magnetization-prepared rapid-acquisition gradient echo) and corresponding GE-PD (gradient echo–proton density) images were acquired, and the MPRAGE images were then normalized by the GE-PD images for use as a high-resolution anatomical image for the following fMRI data analysis (Van de Moortele et al., 2009 (link)).