Hi Douglas

it really depends what you are using it for. MPRAGE and it's variants work quite well, but for example if you are planning a longitudinal study you might want a multi-echo mprage to minimize distortions across session.

cheers Bruce On Wed, 26 Feb 2014, Douglas Wojcik wrote:

Good afternoon;   I am hoping you can help me answer a pretty quick & easy question….   I am trying to identify the best MRI protocol to use for Freesurfer analysis… When I look at the FAQ:   Data Requirements   The processing procedures for the creation of cortical models require good quality T1 weighted MRI data, such as a Siemens MPRAGE (examples of appropriate Siemens scanner protocols) or GE SPGR sequence with approximately 1mm3 resolution (although a variety of quality data sets can be processed with additional manual intervention). Thickness should not exceed 1.5mm (~1mm^3 is ideal). The protocols specified for the ADNI project are excellent examples to follow. The best FreeSurfer processing results come from scans having excellent gray/white matter contrast.   The link to the ADNI project protocols is broken…I think that they should be  here: http://adni.loni.usc.edu/methods/documents/mri-protocols/   Thanks   Douglas