Enhanced neural activity detection in the fMRI using polar Fourier transform

Motivation: Alternative distortion-reducing methods are needed since NUFFT reconstruction of modestly undersampled radial k-space creates streaking artifacts that influence the entire image and fMRI study's ROI.Goal(s): Our objective is to demonstrate that the ROI in our fMRI study is less exposed to aliasing artifacts when PFT reconstruction is used as opposed to NUFFT reconstruction. Approach: Radial-based fMRI images with 2x undersampling were reconstructed using PFT. The neural activity map was then compared to NUFFT-based reconstruction.Results: Compared to the NUFFT, our proposed approach achieved a qualitatively and quantitatively improved activation map thanks to the distinct artifact characteristic of the PFT. Impact: Global streaking artifacts in reconstructed images from undersampled radial k-space may seriously affect fMRI study ROI and lead to incorrect brain activity maps. This work used the PFT approach to reduce ROI aliasing artifact in fMRI studies.