CNS Connectivity: The MR Connectome

Purpose: Mapping the human connectome in healthy adults for the Human Connectome Project (HCP) benefits from high quality, high resolution, multiband (MB)-accelerated whole brain fMRI and dMRI [1-3]. Higher field strengths provide higher SNR and the opportunity to acquire at higher resolution [4], however, this comes at the cost of increased motion sensitivity [5] (due to required in-plane phase encoding acceleration), B1 + inhomogeneity (resulting in signal loss in cerebellar and temporal lobe regions) and SAR (limiting our ability reduce TR or accelerate). This course describes the some of the steps the HCP has taken to mitigate these costs and facilitate high resolution, whole brain fMRI/dMRI at 3 and 7T.