Bayesian Experimental Design of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Sequences

We show how improved sequences for magnetic resonance imaging can be found through optimization of Bayesian design scores. Combining approximate Bayesian inference and natural image statistics with high-performance numerical computation, we propose the first Bayesian experimental design framework for this problem of high relevance to clinical and brain research. Our solution requires large-scale approximate inference for dense, non-Gaussian models. We propose a novel scalable variational inference algorithm, and show how powerful methods of numerical mathematics can be modified to compute primitives in our framework. Our approach is evaluated on raw data from a 3T MR scanner.