MUSIC-MRI: unleash the resolving power of k-space beyond the Fourier transform

Modern MRI reconstructs images by performing Fourier transform (FT) on k-space to decompose the signal on an orthogonal basis composed of trigonometric functions. We are inspired by the problem of estimating the Direction of Arrival in radar theory and propose a novel route for MRI reconstruction based on multiple signal classification (MUSIC). MUSIC-MRI overcomes the sidelobe problem of FT and significantly promotes the actual resolution in the meaning of full width at half maximum (FWHM). Our phantom experiments show that the FWHMs are 0.45mm by MUSIC-MRI and 1.50mm by FT, while the nominal resolution of the k-space data is 0.94mm.