Prospective acquisition correction for head motion with image-based tracking for real-time fMRI

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) head motion can corrupt the signal changes induced by brain activation. This paper describes a novel technique called Prospective Acquisition CorrEction (PACE) for reducing motion-induced effects on magnetization history. Full three-dimensional rigid body estimation of head movement is obtained by image-based motion detection to a high level of accuracy. Adjustment of slice position and orientation, as well as regridding of residual volume to volume motion, is performed in real-time during data acquisition. Phantom experiments demonstrate a high level of consistency (translation < 40 microm; rotation < 0.05 degrees ) for detected motion parameters. In vivo experiments were carried out and they showed a significant decrease of variance between successively acquired datasets compared to retrospective correction algorithms.