AbstractThe effects of off‐resonance radio‐frequency irradiation on the intensity of the MR signal from water protons in the cat brain are asymmetric around the chemical shift of the water signal. This asymmetry, which could arise from a shift in the magnetization transfer spectrum ˜1.5 ppm upfield from the solvent water signal, must be taken into account to compensate for magnetization transfer effects inherent in arterial spin tagging approaches that use a single radio‐frequency coil. Two approaches that either correct for, or circumvent, the apparent upfield shift of the magnetization transfer spectrum are presented, and a perfusion image of the cat brain, using flow‐induced adiabatic inversion of arterial water protons, is presented. Other problems in obtaining quantitative cerebral blood flow values using the arterial spin tagging approach are discussed.