High permittivity ceramics for improving detection of fMRI activation at 1.5T

We show that high permittivity materials (HPMs) can improve functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 1.5T, increasing the receive sensitivity of a commercial multi-channel head coil. Both numerical simulations and experiment showed ~25% improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a commercial head coil in the areas of interest when HPM blocks were placed in proximity. This led to an increase in the detected motor cortex fMRI activation volume by an average of 56%, thus resulting in more accurate functional imaging at 1.5T.