Special designed RF-antenna with integrated non-invasive carbon electrodes for simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography acquisition at 7T.
The construction of a high quality MR RF-antenna with incorporated EEG electrodes for simultaneous MRI and EEG acquisition is presented. The antenna comprises an active decoupled surface coil for receiving the MR signal and a whole body coil for transmitting the excitation RF pulses. The surface coil offers a high signal-to-noise ratio required for fMRI application and the whole body coil has a good B(1) excitation profile, which enables the application of homogeneous RF pulses. Non-invasive carbon electrodes are used in order to minimise the magnetic susceptibility artefacts that occur upon application of conductive materials. This dedicated set-up is compared to a standard set-up being a linear birdcage coil and commercially available Ag/AgCl electrodes. As the acquired EEG signals are heavily disturbed by the gradient switching, intelligent filtering is applied to obtain a clean EEG signal.
Van Audekerkea
J
J
Bio-Imaging Lab, University of Antwerp, RUCA, Groenenborgerlaan, 171, B-2020, Antwerp, Belgium. jovaudek@ruca.ua.ac.be
Peeters
R
R
Verhoye
M
M
Sijbers
J
J
Van der Linden
A
A
D000818:Animals; D016477:Artifacts; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000295:instrumentation; D002244:Carbon; D004566:Electrodes; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004867:Equipment Design; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011846:Radio Waves; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*
D002244:Carbon