Markerless prospective motion correction assisted functional MRS during motor activation using PRESS sequence at 3T

Motivation: Conducting functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS) studies in clinical conditions is challenging due to low SNR and small neurochemical changes. Goal(s): Investigate the feasibility of PRESS fMRS studies at 3T assisted by a prospective motion correction (PMC) system. Approach: A markerless PMC system was applied to an fMRS study during motor activation with a task paradigm consisting of three blocks REST-TASK-REST. The same motor task was repeated twice, once with PMC ON and once with PMC OFF. Results: A statistically significant increase in Glx of 5.75% was observed with PMC ON. No metabolite changes were observed with PMC OFF. Impact: With the assistance of a markerless prospective motion correction system, fMRS at 3T with a clinically feasible protocol is capable of detecting small changes of a few percent in Glx concentrations during functional activation.