FIG. 1.

a: Pulse sequence diagram for multi-shot flyback-EPI bSSFP fMRI with an echo-train length of 4. At each excitation, echo-time shifting is carried out by delaying the data acquisition train by adding a Δt to the initial pre-wait time and reducing the initial post-wait time by the same amount for the next shot. Therefore, the abrupt changes in phase are smoothed out and the ghosting is reduced greatly. b: In-plane k_x-k_y flyback-EPI trajectory. c: 3D k-space traversal order: numbers correspond to order of acquisition. k-Space z-encodes are in reverse-centric order to acquire the center of k-space near the end of the volume time.