A fully parallel, simultaneous sampling phased array receiver system for a clinical echoplanar imaging system is described and evaluated for BOLD activation and relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) experiments. A 4-coil array curved around the occipital lobe improved SNR by factors of 1.5 in the visual cortex and 3.1 in the visual association cortex relative to a 13-cm diameter surface coil, improving the statistical significance and coverage of visual activation maps. A 4-coil bilateral array increased SNR throughout the head relative to a quadrature head coil by up to a factor of 5 in much of the cortex, with proportional improvement in the SNR of rCBV maps.