8/14/2014 OHBM

https://ww4.aievolution.com/hbm1401/index.cfm?do=abs.viewAbs&abs=4072 1/3
FMRIdenoisingusingnonlocalmeanstouncoveractivationinsubcorticalstructuresat
1.5T
Wednesday,June11,2014:12:45PM2:45PM
CongressCenterHamburg
Room:HallH
SubmissionNumber:
3498
OnDisplay:
Wednesday,June11&Thursday,June12
Authors:
MichalBernier
1
,KevinWhittingstall
1
Institutions:
1
UniversitdeSherbrooke,Sherbrooke,Canada
FirstAuthor:
MichalBernierLectureInformation|ContactMe
UniversitdeSherbrooke
Sherbrooke,Canada
Introduction:
Previousstudiescomparingfunctionalmagneticresonanceimaging(fMRI)dataacquiredat1.5Tandhigherfieldstrengthsdeterminedasignal
increasesinsubcorticalstructureslikethethalamusduringmotororvisualtasks[4].Thedecreasedactivationdetectionat1.5Tmaybethe
resultofalowSNRduetoanincreasedphysiologicalnoise[6],showingthatitmaybedifficultforlowerfieldstrengthscannertostudythe
functionalactivationsinsomesubcorticalandcorticalstructures.However,somestudiessuggestedthatwecouldincreasetheSNRofstructural
MRIbysimplydenoisingthedata,eitherbyindependentcomponentanalysis(ICA)[2]ormorerecentlybynonlocalmeansdenoising(NLM)[5].
However,asfarasweknow,thelatterwasneverconsideredinfunctionalMRI.NLMisadenoisingfilterthatcanbedesignedtogreatlyreducethe
riciannoiseomnipresentinMRIimages[1].Inthisstudy,weshowthatbyapplyingNLMonfMRIdata,wecaneasilyuncoveractivationinkeysub
corticalstructuresduringbasicvisualandmotortasks.
Methods:
Wecollected3separatefMRIdatasets(35axialimageslices,64x64matrix,TR/TE2730/40msec,voxelsize3.438x3.438x4.2mm)in18subjects
whoperformed:(1)aleft(FTL)and(2)right(RFT)fingertappingsequence(TaskfMRI,4min40sec,20secofalternatingfingertapping,30sec
ofrest,eyesclosed)and(3)aeyesopenclosed(EOC)sequence(TaskfMRI,4min40sec,20secofeyesopen,30secofeyesclosed).First,
standardpreprocessing(slicetimingandmotioncorrection,5mmgaussianspatialsmooth,temporalfiltering,detrending)wereperformedusing
AFNI[3].Wethenpreprocessedthedatabymodifingasinglestepinthepreprocessingpipeline:priortospatialsmoothing,wedenoisedthedata
usingourinhouseNLMalgorithm.Briefly,thisapproachconsistedofusingspatialnonlocalvoxelsimilaritiestolearnandsuppressthenoisein
eachvoxel,ratherthancombiningthesurroundingvoxelstogether,asisdonewithagaussiansmooth.Amoderatesmoothingwasthenstill
applied(2mm)toreducetheeffectsofresidualmotionartefactsandtoformcontiguousclusters.Activationwascalculatedineachvoxelby
computingthePearsoncorrelationbetweenthetimeseriesandaHRFconvolvedboxcarresultingintwomapspertask(standardvsNLMpipeline).
Ineachsubject,wecomputedthefractionofthalamicvoxelsthatsignificantlyactivated(zscore>3.5,p<<0.01).
Results:
Forbothfingertapping(FTLandFTR)andtheeyesopenclosedtask(EOC),weobservedasignificantincreaseofthalamicactivitywhenusingthe
denoisingpipeline:FTLfrom3.185.32%to12.255.07%,FTRfrom2.423.40%to11.847.44%,EOCfrom1.298.37%to9.787.04%.
Eachoftheseincreaseswasstatisticallysignificant(p<<0.01).Moreover,wequalitativelyshowonFigure1thatthecorrelationmapsaremore
accurate,mainlyduetothefactthataseveregaussiansmoothisnolongermandatoryinthepreprocessingpipelinewhenaNLMdenoisingis
applied.
Conclusions:
DetectingfMRIactivationinsubcorticalareasat1.5TisdifficultgivenitsrelativelylowSNRandtissuepartialvolumeeffects.Asaresult,
gaussiansmoothingmaysuppresspotentialactivationvoxelsbyassumingequalnoiselevels.OurstudyshowsthatNLMdenoising,whichlearns
andsuppressesphysiologicalnoiseinsteadofmergingthesignalsofthesurroundingneighborhood,canuncoveractivationinareassuchasthe
thalamusandputamenevenwhendataisacquiredwithrelativelystraightforwardandshortexperimentalparadigmsatlowfieldstrengths.NLM
denoisingmaythereforebeagoodalternativetoGaussiansmootingandresultinhigherqualityfMRIactivationimages..
ModelingandAnalysisMethods:
MotionCorrectionandPreprocessing
8/14/2014 OHBM
https://ww4.aievolution.com/hbm1401/index.cfm?do=abs.viewAbs&abs=4072 2/3

AbstractInformation
Wouldyouacceptanoralpresentationifyourabstractisselectedforanoralsession?
Yes
Pleaseindicatebelowifyourstudywasa"restingstate"or"taskactivationstudy.
Taskactivation
Healthysubjectsonlyorpatients(notethatpatientstudiesmayalsoinvolvehealthysubjects):
Healthysubjects
InternalReviewBoard(IRB)orAnimalUseandCareCommittee(AUCC)Approval.Pleaseindicateapprovalbelow.Pleasenote:FailuretohaveIRB
orAUCCapproval,ifapplicablewillleadtoautomaticrejectionofabstract.
Yes,IhaveIRBorAUCCapproval
Pleaseindicatewhichmethodwasusedinyourresearch:
FunctionalMRI
StructuralMRI
ForhumanMRI,whatfieldstrengthscannerdoyouuse?
1.5T
Whatpostprocessingsoftwarepackagesdoyouuse?
AFNI
References
Reference
Buades,A.etal(2005),'ANonLocalAlgorithmforImageDenoising'.IEEEComputerSocietyConferenceonComputerVisionandPattern
Recognition(CVPR05),pp.6065
Calhoun,V.D.etal(2003),'ICAofFunctionalMRIData:AnOverview',4thInternationalSymposiumonIndependentComponentAnalysisandBlind
SignalSeparation,pp.281288
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Manjn,J.V,etal(2008),'MRIdenoisingusingnonlocalmeans',Medicalimageanalysis,vol12,pp514523
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