Development of ANC methods for fMRI rooms; Design challenges and algorithms

Presence of strong broadband acoustic noise interferes with imaging process and diagnostic procedures in Magnetic Resonance Imaging rooms, especially in functional MRI (fMRI) applications. In this paper, we present active noise control (ANC) methods for reducing the acoustic noise generated by a 3-Tesla fMRI machine during the scan using Echo-Planar Imaging (EPI) technique. Properties and decomposition of the noise and distributed nature of the source are used in developing new ANC methods and adaptive algorithms for real-time applications. The methods are tested in testbed and fMRI room. Test results are presented showing the performance of proposed methods.