Improving Coil Setup and Data Processing Strategies for Concurrent (f)MRI and Brain-Stimulation Studies

Motivation: In concurrent MRI-brain-stimulation studies various coil setups are used which show either limited access or limited spatial signal coverage. Goal(s): Our goal is to come up with an optimized coil setup and data processing strategy that allow for open access to the head while maintaining whole brain imaging capabilities. Approach: Three commonly used coil setups (head array, wrapped body array, TMS surface coil) where used and spatial signal homogenization as well as multi-echo fMRI postprocessing strategies were applied. Results: By comparing various data processing strategies we were able to improve similarity of activation patterns across the different coil setups used. Impact: Our results will help to improve researchers to chose optimized data acquistion and postprocessing strategies for whole brain and network based fMRI studies in concurrent brain-stimulation and MRI investigations.