Magnetic resonance imaging appropriate for construction of subject-specific head models for diffuse optical tomography.

Subject-specific head models of which their geometry is based on structural magnetic resonance images are essential to accurately estimate the spatial sensitivity profiles for image reconstruction in diffuse optical tomography. T1-weighted magnetic resonance images, which are commonly used for structural imaging, are not sufficient for the threshold-based segmentation of the superficial tissues. Two types of pulse sequences, which provide a high contrast among the superficial tissues, are introduced to complement the segmentation to construct the subject-specific head models. The magnetic resonance images acquired by the proposed pulse sequences are robust to the threshold level and adequate for the threshold-based segmentation of the superficial tissues compared to the T1- and T2-weighted images. The total scan time of the proposed pulse sequences is less than one-fourth of that for the T2-weighted pulse sequence.