Removing Motion Artifact in MRI by Using a Perceptual Loss Driven Deep Learning Framework

TL;DR

This paper introduces PERCEPT-Net, a deep learning framework with perceptual supervision that effectively removes motion artifacts from MRI images, improving clinical image quality.

Contribution

The study proposes a novel MRI artifact correction method using a perceptual loss-driven deep learning model with multi-scale and attention mechanisms.

Findings

PERCEPT-Net outperforms existing methods on clinical MRI data.

Motion Perceptual Loss significantly improves structural consistency.

Radiologists report higher diagnostic confidence with corrected images.

Abstract

Purpose: Deep learning-based MRI artifact correction methods often demonstrate poor generalization to clinical data. This limitation largely stems from the inability of deep learning models in reliably distinguishing motion artifacts from true anatomical structures, due to insufficient awareness of artifact characteristics. To address this challenge, we proposed PERCEPT-Net, a deep learning framework that enhances structure preserving and suppresses artifact through dedicated perceptual supervision.Method: PERCEPT-Net is built on a residual U-Net backbone and incorporates three auxiliary components. The first multi-scale recovery module is designed to preserve both global anatomical context and fine structural details, while the second dual attention mechanisms further improve performance by prioritizing clinically relevant features. At the core of the framework is the third Motion Perceptual Loss (MPL), an artifact-aware perceptual supervision strategy that learns generalized representations of MRI motion artifacts, enabling the model to effectively suppress them while maintaining anatomical fidelity. The model is trained on a hybrid dataset comprising both real and simulated paired volumes, and its performance is validated on a prospective test set using a combination of quantitative metrics and qualitative assessments by experienced radiologists.Result: PERCEPT-Net outperformed state-of-the-art methods on clinical data. Ablation studies identified the Motion Perceptual Loss as the primary contributor to this performance, yielding significant improvements in structural consistency and tissue contrast, as reflected by higher SSIM and PSNR values. These findings were further corroborated by radiologist evaluations, which demonstrated significantly higher diagnostic confidence in the corrected volumes.