Robust Correction for the Effects of Head Motion on Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Brain Activity

虽然功能磁共振成像(FMRI)被广泛用作神经科学研究工具来测量和了解大脑活动，但对头部运动的敏感性是一个主要问题。即使是毫米级的头部运动也会以复杂的方式扰乱大脑活动的fMRI图。年轻人通常可以保持足够的静止，但其他人群，如儿童、老年人和大脑功能受损的人往往发现很难做到这一点。在这种情况下，fMRI数据通常会被丢弃。因此，头部运动问题是扩大功能磁共振成像在基础和临床神经科学研究中使用的障碍。 这项建议建立在格雷厄姆实验室之前为降低功能磁共振成像对头部运动的敏感性所做的大量贡献的基础上。目前这项研究的主要思想涉及在功能磁共振成像过程中测量头部运动，并使用这些测量结果实时(就在图像形成时)对运动和其他信号误差进行校正。有三个具体目标： 1.开发和验证一种新型的fMRI头部位置跟踪系统，克服了现有方法的局限性； 2.利用这一系统开发综合方法，实时纠正头部运动和其他误差来源的众多影响；以及 3.为了证明这项新技术在头部运动特别麻烦的fMRI应用中的好处：研究与涉及口语的语言任务相关的大脑活动。 在完成这些目标后，新技术将被创造出来，可以商业化和销售；可以很容易地被神经科学研究人员使用；这将使功能磁共振成像在神经科学中的应用得到扩大。

Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is widely used as a neuroscience research tool to measure and understand brain activity, sensitivity to head motion poses a major problem. Even millimetre head motions can disrupt fMRI maps of brain activity in complex ways. Young adults can usually remain sufficiently still, but other populations such as children, the elderly, and people with impaired brain function often find it very difficult. In such cases, the fMRI data are often discarded. The head motion problem is thus a barrier to expanding use of fMRI in basic and clinical neuroscience research. This proposal builds on numerous contributions previously made in the Graham laboratory to reduce the sensitivity of fMRI to head motion. The main idea of the current research involves measuring head movements during fMRI, and using these measurements to make corrections for motions and other signal errors in "real-time" (right at the time the images are formed). There are three specific objectives: 1. To develop and validate a novel system for tracking head position during fMRI that overcomes the limitations of existing approaches; 2. To use this system in the development of comprehensive methods to correct for the numerous effects of head motion and other sources of error in real time; and 3. To demonstrate the benefits of this new technology in an fMRI application where head motion is particularly troublesome: the study of the brain activity associated with language tasks that involve spoken words. On completing these objectives, new technology will have been created that can be commercialized and sold; that can be easily used by neuroscience researchers; and that will enable expanded fMRI applications in neuroscience .