To smooth or not to smooth? ROC analysis of perfusion fMRI data

Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast has been widely used for visualizing regional neural activation. Temporal filtering and parameter estimation algorithms are generally used to account for the intrinsic temporal autocorrelation present in BOLD data. Arterial spin labeling perfusion imaging is an emerging methodology for visualizing regional brain function both at rest and during activation. Perfusion contrast manifests different noise properties compared with BOLD contrast, represented by the even distribution of noise power and spatial coherence across the frequency spectrum. Consequently, different strategies are expected to be employed in the statistical analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data based on perfusion contrast. In this study, the effect of different analysis methods upon signal detection efficacy, as assessed by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) measures, was examined for perfusion fMRI data. Simulated foci of neural activity of varying amplitude and spatial extent were added to resting perfusion data, and the accuracy of each analysis was evaluated by comparing the results with the known distribution of pseudo-activation. In contrast to the BOLD fMRI, temporal smoothing or filtering reduces the power of perfusion fMRI data analyses whereas spatial smoothing is beneficial to the efficacy of analyses.     

Sensitivity limitations of high-resolution perfusion-based human fMRI at 7 Tesla

The study of the brain's functional organization at laminar and columnar level of the cortex with blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) is affected by the contribution of large veins downstream from the microvascular response to brain activity. Blood volume- and especially perfusion-based techniques may reduce this problem because of their reduced sensitivity to venous effects, but may not allow the same spatial resolution because of smaller signal changes associated with brain activity. Here we investigated the practical resolution limits of perfusion-weighted fMRI in human visual stimulation experiments. For this purpose, we used a highly sensitive, single-shot perfusion labeling (SSPL) technique at 7 T and compared sensitivity to detect visual activation at low (2 mm, n = 10) and high (1 mm, n = 8) nominal isotropic spatial, and 3 s temporal, resolution with BOLD in 5½-minute-long experiments. Despite the smaller absolute signal change with activation, 2 mm resolution SSPL yielded comparable sensitivity to BOLD. This was attributed to a superior suppression of physiological noise with SSPL. However, at 1 mm nominal resolution, SSPL sensitivity fell on average at least 42% below that of BOLD, and detection of visual activation was compromised. This is explained by the fact that at high resolution, with both techniques, typically thermal noise rather than physiological noise dominates sensitivity. The observed sensitivity loss implies that to perform 1-mm resolution, perfusion weighted fMRI with a robustness similar to BOLD, scan times that are almost 3 times longer than the comparable BOLD experiment are required. This is in line with or slightly better than previous comparisons between perfusion-weighted fMRI and BOLD. The lower sensitivity has to be weighed against the spatial fidelity advantages of high-resolution perfusion-weighted fMRI.     

Activation volume vs BOLD signal change as measures of fMRI activation – Its impact on GABA – fMRI activation correlation

PurposeTo explore the relative robustness of functional MRI (fMRI) activation volume and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal change as fMRI metric, and to study the effect of relative robustness on the correlation between fMRI activation and cortical gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) in healthy controls and patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).MethodsfMRI data were acquired from healthy controls and patients with MS, with the subjects peforming self paced bilateral finger tapping in block design. GABA spectroscopy was performed with voxel placed on the area of maximum activation during fMRI. Activation volume and BOLD signal changes at primary motor cortex (M1), as well as GABA concentration were calculated for each patient.ResultsActivation volume correlated with BOLD signal change in healthy controls, but no such correlation was observed in patients with MS. This difference was likely the result of higher intersubject noise variance in the patient population. GABA concentration correlated with M1 activation volume in patients but not in controls, and did not correlate with any fMRI metric in patients or controls.ConclusionOur data suggest that activation volume is a more robust measure than BOLD signal change in a group with high intersubject noise variance as in patients with MS. Additionally, this study demonstrated difference in correlation behavior between GABA concentration and the 2 fMRI metrics in patients with MS, suggesting that GABA - activation volume correlation is more appropriate measure in the patient group.     

SNR and functional sensitivity of BOLD and perfusion-based fMRI using arterial spin labeling with spiral SENSE at 3 T

Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using parallel imaging to reduce the readout window have reported a loss in temporal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that is less than would be expected given a purely thermal noise model. In this study, the impact of parallel imaging on the noise components and functional sensitivity of both BOLD and perfusion-based fMRI data was investigated. Dual-echo arterial spin labeling data were acquired on five subjects using sensitivity encoding (SENSE), at reduction factors (R) of 1, 2 and 3. Direct recording of cardiac and respiratory activity during data acquisition enabled the retrospective removal of physiological noise. The temporal SNR of the perfusion time series closely followed the thermal noise prediction of a √R loss in SNR as the readout window was shortened, with temporal SNR values (relative to the R=1 data) of 0.72 and 0.56 for the R=2 and R=3 data, respectively, after accounting for physiological noise. However, the BOLD temporal SNR decreased more slowly than predicted even after accounting for physiological noise, with relative temporal SNR values of 0.80 and 0.63 for the R=2 and R=3 data, respectively. Spectral analysis revealed that the BOLD trends were dominated by low-frequency fluctuations, which were not dominant in the perfusion data due to signal processing differences. The functional sensitivity, assessed using mean F values over activated regions of interest (ROIs), followed the temporal SNR trends for the BOLD data. However, results for the perfusion data were more dependent on the threshold used for ROI selection, most likely due to the inherently low SNR of functional perfusion data.     

Respiratory noise correction using phase information

Respiratory noise is a confounding factor in functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data analysis. A novel method called Respiratory noise Correction using Phase information is proposed to retrospectively correct for the respiratory noise in functional MRI (fMRI) time series. It is demonstrated that the respiratory movement and the phase of functional MRI images are highly correlated in time. The signal fluctuation due to respiratory movements can be effectively estimated from the phase variation and removed from the functional MRI time series using a Wiener filtering technique. In our experiments, this new method is compared with RETROICOR, which requires recording respiration signal simultaneously in an fMRI experiment. The two techniques show comparable performance with respect to the respiratory noise correction for fMRI time series. However, this technique is more advantageous because there is no need for monitoring the subjects’ respiration or changing functional MRI protocols. This technique is also potentially useful for correcting respiratory noise from abnormal breathing or when the respiration is not periodic.     

CORSICA: correction of structured noise in fMRI by automatic identification of ICA components

When applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, spatial independent component analysis (sICA), a data-driven technique that addresses the blind source separation problem, seems able to extract components specifically related to physiological noise and brain movements. These components should be removed from the data to achieve structured noise reduction and improve any subsequent detection and analysis of signal fluctuations related to neural activity. We propose a new automatic method called CORSICA (CORrection of Structured noise using spatial Independent Component Analysis) to identify the components related to physiological noise, using prior information on the spatial localization of the main physiological fluctuations in fMRI data. As opposed to existing spectral priors, which may be subject to aliasing effects for long-TR data sets (typically acquired with TR >1 s), such spatial priors can be applied to fMRI data, regardless of the TR of the acquisitions. By comparing the proposed automatic selection to a manual selection performed visually by a human operator, we first show that CORSICA is able to identify the noise-related components for long-TR data with a high sensitivity and a specificity of 1. On short-TR data sets, we validate that the proposed method of noise reduction allows a substantial improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio evaluated at the cardiac and respiratory frequencies, even in the gray matter, while preserving the main fluctuations related to neural activity.     

Comparison of two exploratory data analysis methods for fMRI: fuzzy clustering vs. principal component analysis

Exploratory data-driven methods such as Fuzzy clustering analysis (FCA) and Principal component analysis (PCA) may be considered as hypothesis-generating procedures that are complementary to the hypothesis-led statistical inferential methods in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Here, a comparison between FCA and PCA is presented in a systematic fMRI study, with MR data acquired under the null condition, i.e., no activation, with different noise contributions and simulated, varying "activation." The contrast-to-noise (CNR) ratio ranged between 1-10. We found that if fMRI data are corrupted by scanner noise only, FCA and PCA show comparable performance. In the presence of other sources of signal variation (e.g., physiological noise), FCA outperforms PCA in the entire CNR range of interest in fMRI, particularly for low CNR values. The comparison method that we introduced may be used to assess other exploratory approaches such as independent component analysis or neural network-based techniques.     

Rician noise reduction in magnetic resonance images using adaptive non-local mean and guided image filtering

This paper proposes a Rician noise reduction method for magnetic resonance (MR) images. The proposed method is based on adaptive non-local mean and guided image filtering techniques. In the first phase, a guidance image is obtained from the noisy image through an adaptive non-local mean filter. Sobel operators are applied to compute the strength of edges which is further used to control the spread of the kernel in non-local mean filtering. In the second phase, the noisy and the guidance images are provided to the guided image filter as input to restore the noise-free image. The improved performance of the proposed method is investigated using the simulated and real data sets of MR images. Its performance is also compared with the previously proposed state-of-the art methods. Comparative analysis demonstrates the superiority of the proposed scheme over the existing approaches.     

Adaptive noise cancelling and condition monitoring

When mechanical signature analysis methods are applied to the detection of faults within a complex machine, one is often confronted with a situation in which the diagnostic signal is embedded in a background noise. Coherent filtering techniques are of help in improving the signal to noise ratio (SNR) only when a synchronizing signal is available; on the other hand, the adaptive noise cancelling (ANC) technique can be successfully applied to increase the signal to noise ratio even in those situations where a synchronization signal is not available. Adaptive noise cancelling is a form of optimal filtering in which use is made of an auxiliary or a reference signal. In the work reported here it has been shown that the statistical and spectral analyses techniques which fail to detect and diagnose faults because of a poor signal to noise ratio can be made effective by using an adaptive noise cancelling technique. The expression for the signal to noise density ratio at the output of the noise canceller is derived for a simplified model of a machine.     

一种公共网络攻击数据挖掘智能算法研究

公共网络的开放性和自组织特性导致网络容易受到病毒干扰和入侵攻击,对攻击数据的准确高效挖掘能确保网络安全。传统方法采用时频指向性波束特征聚类方法实现攻击数据挖掘,在信噪比较低时攻击数据准确挖掘概率较低。提出一种基于自适应滤波检测和时频特征提取的公共网络攻击数据挖掘智能算法。首先进行公共网络攻击数据的信号拟合和时间序列分析,对含噪的攻击数据拟合信号进行自适应滤波检测,提高信号纯度,对滤波输出数据进行时频特征提取,实现攻击数据的准确挖掘。仿真结果表明,采用该算法进行网络攻击数据挖掘,对攻击数据特征的准确检测性能较高,对干扰的抑制性能较强,能有效实现网络安全防御。     

噪声对等光频采样调频连续波激光雷达测距精度的影响分析及实验验证

调频连续波激光雷达具有测量范围大,精度高,无需合作目标等优点,在计量学和工业现场测量中具有重要作用。简单介绍了等光频重采样调频连续波激光雷达的基本结构和测距原理,分析了系统辅助干涉信号和测量干涉信号中存在的主要噪声及其特点。当系统辅助干涉信号中存在噪声时,会造成极值点不准确并且引入测量误差。随后,使用Cramér-Rao下界定理评估测量干涉信号的噪声对测量结果的影响。为了提高测量的准确性和稳定性,基于经验模态分解的小波阈值滤波和汉宁窗带通滤波结合小波滤波的自适应滤波方法分别用来去除了辅助干涉信号和测量干涉信号中的噪声。实验中多次测量了平面镜和多种粗糙度样块,并使用精密导轨验证测量结果的准确性。实验结果表明,当被测物位于3.9 m左右时,使用自适应滤波方法去除噪声后,系统对反射镜和其他粗糙度样块的测量不确定度为20 μm和几十微米(K取值2),远小于使用小波阈值滤波的方法(120 μm和几百微米)。同时,通过对比精密导轨位移数值和系统的测量结果,证明了所提出的方法能够有效提高系统的测量准确性。     

Signal fluctuations in fMRI data acquired with 2D-EPI and 3D-EPI at 7 Tesla

Segmented three-dimensional echo planar imaging (3D-EPI) provides higher image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than standard single-shot two-dimensional echo planar imaging (2D-EPI), but is more sensitive to physiological noise. The aim of this study was to compare physiological noise removal efficiency in single-shot 2D-EPI and segmented 3D-EPI acquired at 7 Tesla. Two approaches were investigated based either on physiological regressors (PR) derived from cardiac and respiratory phases, or on principal component analysis (PCA) using additional resting-state data. Results show that, prior to physiological noise removal, 2D-EPI data had higher temporal SNR (tSNR), while spatial SNR was higher in 3D-EPI. Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) sensitivity was similar for both methods. The PR-based approach allowed characterization of relative contributions from different noise sources, confirming significant increases in physiological noise from 2D to 3D prior to correction. Both physiological noise removal approaches produced significant increases in tSNR and BOLD sensitivity, and these increases were larger for 3D-EPI, resulting in higher BOLD sensitivity in the 3D-EPI than in the 2D-EPI data. The PCA-based approach was the most effective correction method, yielding higher tSNR values for 3D-EPI than for 2D-EPI postcorrection.     

Continuous EEG-fMRI in patients with partial epilepsy and focal interictal slow-wave discharges on EEG

Purpose

To verify whether in patients with partial epilepsy and routine electroenecephalogram (EEG) showing focal interictal slow-wave discharges without spikes combined EEG–functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) would localize the corresponding epileptogenic focus, thus providing reliable information on the epileptic source.

Methods

Eight patients with partial epileptic seizures whose routine scalp EEG recordings on presentation showed focal interictal slow-wave activity underwent EEG–fMRI. EEG data were continuously recorded for 24 min (four concatenated sessions) from 18 scalp electrodes, while fMRI scans were simultaneously acquired with a 1.5-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. After recording sessions and MRI artefact removal, EEG data were analyzed offline. We compared blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes on fMRI with EEG recordings obtained at rest and during activation (with and without focal interictal slow-wave discharges).

Results

In all patients, when the EEG tracing showed the onset of focal slow-wave discharges on a few lateralized electrodes, BOLD-fMRI activation in the corresponding brain area significantly increased. We detected significant concordance between focal EEG interictal slow-wave discharges and focal BOLD activation on fMRI. In patients with lesional epilepsy, the epileptogenic area corresponded to the sites of increased focal BOLD signal.

Conclusions

Even in patients with partial epilepsy whose standard EEGs show focal interictal slow-wave discharges without spikes, EEG–fMRI can visualize related focal BOLD activation thus providing useful information for pre-surgical planning.     

非高斯冲激干扰下基于Softplus函数的核自适应滤波算法

针对非高斯环境下一般自适应滤波算法性能严重下降问题,本文提出了一种基于Softplus函数的核分式低次幂自适应滤波算法(kernel fractional lower algorithm based on Softplus function,SP-KFLP),该算法将Softplus函数与核分式低次幂准则相结合,利用输出误差的非线性饱和特性通过随机梯度下降法更新权重.一方面利用Softplus函数的特点在保证了SP-KFLP算法具有良好的抗脉冲干扰性能的同时提高了其收敛速度;另一方面将低次幂误差的倒数作为权重向量更新公式的系数,利用误差突增使得权重向量不更新的方法来抵制冲激噪声,并对其均方收敛性进行了分析.在系统辨识环境下的仿真表明,该算法很好地兼顾了收敛速度和跟踪性能稳定误差的矛盾,在收敛速度和抗脉冲干扰鲁棒性方面优于核最小均方误差算法、核分式低次幂算法和S型核分式低次幂自适应滤波算法.     

一种改进的小波除噪方法用于含噪ICP-AES光谱的处理

提出了一种改进的小波除噪方法。它基于噪声具有频率较高和幅度较小的特点 ,先排除信号中频率较高的成分 ,再丢弃余下的系数较小的成分。对模拟的含噪电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱 (ICP AES)的处理结果表明 ,该法能克服小波平滑和小波去噪的一些缺陷 ,可去除更多噪声 ,而信号强度不受影响。同时 ,基线变得平坦 ,有利于峰高的定量计算。用该法处理实测ICP AES光谱 ,效果满意。     

Effects of hypoglycemia on human brain activation measured with fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure the effects of acute hypoglycemia caused by passive sensory stimulation on brain activation. Visual stimulation was used to generate blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast, which was monitored during hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemic and euglycemic clamp studies. Hypoglycemia (50 +/- 1 mg glucose/dl) decreased the fMRI signal relative to euglycemia in 10 healthy human subjects: the fractional signal change was reduced by 28 +/- 12% (P < .05). These changes were reversed when euglycemia was restored. These data provide a basis of comparison for studies that quantify hypoglycemia-related changes in fMRI activity during cognitive tasks based on visual stimuli and demonstrate that variations in blood glucose levels may modulate BOLD signals in the healthy brain.     

基于改进旋滤波的电子散斑干涉图滤波方法

电子散斑干涉术条纹图在成像时不可避免地受散斑噪声调制,去除噪声是散斑干涉条纹处理的一项重要任务。利用散斑条纹图的方向性,提出一种基于模糊方向的旋滤波:在当前点的领域内定义4个模糊方向窗口,将传统旋滤波的一维、精确方向窗口的确定,转变为模糊方向窗口的确定;在确定的窗口内进行低通滤波时,采用自适应加权均值滤波代替传统的中值滤波。利用该方法分别处理模拟散斑条纹图和实验所得的真实条纹图,并与传统旋滤波、双边滤波和小波丢弃子带方法比较。实验结果表明,该改进算法在滤除散斑条纹图噪声的同时,有效保护了条纹的细节信息。     

Quantification of venous blood signal contribution to BOLD functional activation in the auditory cortex at 3 T

Most modern techniques for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) rely on blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast as the basic principle for detecting neuronal activation. However, the measured BOLD effect depends on a transfer function related to neurophysiological changes accompanying electrical neural activation. The spatial accuracy and extension of the region of interest are determined by vascular effect, which introduces incertitude on real neuronal activation maps. Our efforts have been directed towards the development of a new methodology that is capable of combining morphological, vascular and functional information; obtaining new insight regarding foci of activation; and distinguishing the nature of activation on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Six healthy volunteers were studied in a parametric auditory functional experiment at 3 T; activation maps were overlaid on a high-resolution brain venography obtained through a novel technique. The BOLD signal intensities of vascular and nonvascular activated voxels were analyzed and compared: it was shown that nonvascular active voxels have lower values for signal peak (P<10(-7)) and area (P<10(-8)) with respect to vascular voxels. The analysis showed how venous blood influenced the measured BOLD signals, supplying a technique to filter possible venous artifacts that potentially can lead to misinterpretation of fMRI results. This methodology, although validated in the auditory cortex activation, maintains a general applicability to any cortical fMRI study, as the basic concepts on which it relies on are not limited to this cortical region. The results obtained in this study can represent the basis for new methodologies and tools that are capable of adding further characterization to the BOLD signal properties.     

Identification of activated regions during a language task

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques are based on the assumption that changes in neural activity are accompanied by modulation in the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal. In addition to conventional increases in BOLD signals, sustained negative BOLD signal changes are occasionally observed in many fMRI experiments, which show regions of cortex that seem to respond in antiphase with primary stimulus. The existence of this so-called negative BOLD response (NBR) has been observed and investigated in many functional studies. Several theoretical mechanisms have been proposed to account for it, but its origin has never been fully explained. In this study, the variability of fMRI activation, including the sources of the negative BOLD signal, during phonological and semantic language tasks, was investigated in six right-handed healthy subjects. We found significant activations in the brain regions, mainly in the left hemisphere, involved in the language stimuli [prominent in the inferior frontal gyrus, approximately Brodmann Areas (BA)7, BA44, BA45 and BA47, and in the precuneus]. Moreover, we observed activations in motor regions [precentral gyrus and supplementary motor area (SMA)], a result that suggests a specific role of these areas (particularly the SMA) in language processing. Functional analysis have also shown that certain brain regions, including the posterior cingulate cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex, have consistently greater activity during resting states compared to states of performing cognitive tasks. In our study, we observed diffuse NBR at the cortical level and a stronger negative response in correspondence to the main sinuses. These phenomena seem to be unrelated to a specific neural activity, appearing to be expressions of a mechanical variation in hemodynamics. We discussed about the importance of these responses that are anticorrelated with the stimulus. Our data suggest that particular care must be considered in the interpretation of fMRI findings, especially in the case of presurgical studies.     

High spatial resolution BOLD fMRI using simultaneous multislice excitation with echo-shifting gradient echo at 7 Tesla

We introduce an accelerated gradient echo (GRE) sequence combining simultaneous multislice excitation (SMS) with echo-shifting technique for high spatial resolution blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI). The simulation was conducted to optimize scan parameters. To validate the feasibility of the proposed technique, the visual and motor task experiments were performed at 7.0 Tesla (T). The single-shot EPI sequence was also applied in comparison with the proposed technique. The simulation results showed that an optimized flip angle of 9° provided maximal BOLD contrast for our scanning scheme, allowing low power deposition and SMS acceleration factor of 5. Additionally, parallel acquisition imaging with acceleration factor of 2 was utilized, which allowed a total acceleration factor of 10 in volunteer study. The experiment results showed that geometric distortion-free BOLD images with voxel size of 1.0 × 1.0 × 2.5 mm³ were obtained. Significant brain activation was identified in both visual and motor task experiments, which were in accordance with previous investigations. The proposed technique has potential for high spatial resolution fMRI at ultra-high field because of its sufficient BOLD sensitivity as well as improved acquisition speed over conventional GRE-based techniques.