The results show that high resolution fMRI has the potential to detect small regions of functional activity. If such high resolution images are to be obtained then a multi shot EPI sequence is most probably required so that the images do not suffer too greatly from distortion. The main problem with high resolution interleaved EPI is the artefact caused by subject movement, and until a robust post-processing correction technique has been demonstrated, it is going to be difficult to gain useful results.
The interleaved EPI sequence however still has other applications on a high gradient performance 3.0 Tesla scanner. The reduction in distortion that the multi shot techniques brings, will benefit studies of the basal structures of the brain in particular. The ability to obtain high resolution anatomical images, with the same distortion as the original activation images, allows confident anatomical localisation of the activation, since the resolution is higher than the single shot images, but there will be less risk of mis-registration of structures in the functional images to the anatomical images that might be the case if 2DFT images were used.