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Recent work has shown MRI is able to measure and quantify signals of phospholipid membrane‐bound protons associated with myelin in the human brain. This work seeks to develop an improved technique for characterizing this brain ultrashort‐T2∗$$ {\mathrm{T}}_2\ast $$ component in vivo accounting for T1$$ {\mathrm{T}}_1 $$ weighting.

Data from ultrashort echo time scans from 16 healthy volunteers with variable flip angles (VFA) were collected and fitted into an advanced regression model to quantify signal fraction, relaxation time, and frequency shift of the ultrashort‐T2∗$$ {\mathrm{T}}_2\ast $$ component.

The fitted components show intra‐subject differences of different white matter structures and significantly elevated ultrashort‐T2∗$$ {\mathrm{T}}_2\ast $$ signal fraction in the corticospinal tracts measured at 0.09 versus 0.06 in other white matter structures and significantly …