Functional MRI Based on Intermolecular Double-Quantum Coherences (iDQC) at 3 Tesla

Contrast generated by intermolecular double-quantum coherences (iDQC) is a novel approach to fMRI, which is qualitatively and quantitatively different from the standard blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast. Specifically, it was suggested that the sensitivity of iDQC to local susceptibility gradients can be adjusted on a mesoscopic scale (between 10µm and 1mm) externally by the experimenter. A drawback of iDQC experiments, however, is their inherently poor signal-to-noise ratio leading to substantial signal fluctuations in previous pilot studies. In the current work, parameters of modified CRAZED sequence…