A head coil for use with a parallel-imaging compatible MR system is
disclosed, as is a method of making, and a neurovascular array (NVA)
equipped with, same. The head coil includes conductive rings and rods
configured to produce a plurality of electrically-adjacent primary
resonant substructures about a birdcage-like structure, with each such
primary resonant substructure including two rods neighboring each other
and the short segment of each of the first and second rings
interconnecting them. The primary resonant substructures are isolated
from each other via a preamplifier decoupling scheme and an offset tuning
scheme thereby enabling each primary resonant substructure (i) to receive
an MR signal from tissue within its field of view and (ii) to be
operatively couplable to one processing channel of the MR system for
conveyance of the MR signal received thereby (iii) while being
simultaneously decoupled from the other primary resonant substructures.