A vendor-neutral functional MRI acquisition protocol for multi-site studies

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Multi-site fMRI studies face challenges with data consistency due to vendor-specific hardware and software.
• Conventional vendor-specific acquisition and reconstruction pipelines lead to experimental variability across research sites.
• Standardization is crucial for improving the reproducibility and reliability of large-scale neuroimaging research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce an open, vendor-neutral BOLD SMS-EPI protocol for multi-site fMRI studies.
• To provide a standardized alternative to vendor-specific MRI acquisition and reconstruction pipelines.
• To ensure identical SMS-EPI pulse sequences and image reconstruction across different scanner vendors.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Pulseq framework, an open-source standard for cross-platform MRI pulse sequence development.
• Implemented a vendor-neutral simultaneous multi-slice echo-planar imaging (SMS-EPI) protocol.
• Validated the protocol using resting-state fMRI data from healthy volunteers on Siemens and GE scanners.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated identical SMS-EPI pulse sequences and image reconstruction across multiple scanner vendors.
• Showcased reduced site variance in resting-state fMRI data compared to vendor-specific protocols.
• Confirmed consistent experimental conditions across different sites and scanner software versions.

Conclusions:

• The developed Pulseq-based SMS-EPI protocol offers a standardized solution for multi-site fMRI research.
• This approach enhances data reproducibility by minimizing scanner-related variability.
• The protocol serves as a foundation for future advancements in MRI acquisition and reconstruction techniques.