Abstract

T2*-weighted gradient echo imaging is strongly impacted by subject head motion, amongst others due to motion-related changes in B0 inhomogeneities. Within the oxygenation-sensitive mqBOLD protocol, motion artifacts in T2*-weighted images lead to errors in derived parameter maps. To quantify these errors, we performed realistic motion simulations incorporating rigid body transformations and motion-related field inhomogeneity changes. Our results demonstrate the importance of including B0 inhomogeneities for realistic motion artifact patterns. Even small amounts of simulated motion resulted in substantial errors in derived T2* and R2’ parameter maps, which highlights the relevance of T2* motion correction within the mqBOLD technique.