Prospective motion correction improves gSlider accelerated diffusion imaging

High resolution diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is required to map cortical fibres and short association fibres in superficial white matter. The recently developed gSlider sequence allows high-resolution whole-brain DWI but is prone to motion-induced artefacts due to the long volume acquisition. We combined gSlider with prospective motion correction (PMC) using optical tracking to acquire high angular, high spatial resolution DWI. In three healthy participants, we demonstrated that PMC led to a reduction of motion artifacts, an increase of temporal SNR of around 15% and better estimates of fibre characteristics in the cortex and superficial white matter.