Figure 2. Functional weighted spinal cord images at 7 Tesla.
A single volume of twelve contiguous T2*-weighted slices centered on the C3/C4 junction (as illustrated in Figure 1A) in one subject. Each volume was acquired with 0.91 × 0.91 × 4 mm3 voxels and resampled to 0.31 × 0.31 × 4 mm3 voxels during the affine functional-to-anatomical registration. Excellent contrast between white matter and cerebrospinal fluid facilitates accurate registration between such functional volumes and high-resolution anatomical images (Figure 1B). The use of a 3D acquisition sequence with relatively short echo time and relatively few k-space lines per radiofrequency pulse provides high-quality images with minimal signal drop-out and geometric distortions, although artifacts caused by fat shift of the nerve root sleeve in the phase-encode direction still affect the dorsal edge in a few slices.