Poster #7 - Increasing the reliability of newborns functional brain networks using multi-echo fMRI and NORDIC denoising

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

The developing topology of functional brain networks in infants, studied using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), mirrors the emergence of complex cognitive functions whereas aberrant topologies have the potential to signify risk for emerging psychopathologies. However, studying brain networks in infants is methodologically challenging with the need for extended data collection to generate reliable measures of functional connectivity. Previous work has shown that in adults multi-echo (ME) fMRI can obtain high reliability with shorter recording times compared to standard single-echo (SE) fMRI. Here, we piloted two methods on improving signal reliability to facilitate brain functional connectivity analyses in infants: ME-fMRI and NORDIC (NOise reduction with DIstribution Corrected PCA) thermal noise reduction. We examined the reliability of whole brain resting state functional connectivity patterns in a newborn with 84 minutes of low motion ME data. Then, we looked at split-half reliability of parcellated connectivity matrices and approximated the comparison between ME and single-echo proxied by analyzing data of one echo (TE2; 38ms). We found that reliability increased with increasing amounts of data, and it reached overall highest values for ME-NORDIC, followed by ME (without NORDIC) and TE2-NORDIC, with lowest values for TE2 (without NORDIC). Reliability differed by network with values being highest in parcels belonging to somatomotor networks (TE2=0.29; TE2-NORDIC=0.57; ME=0.73; ME-NORDIC=0.78). Networks with low reliability for TE2 (e.g., ventral attention network) benefited most from using ME and NORDIC (TE2 =0.06; TE2-NORDIC=0.36; ME=0.69; ME-NORDIC=0.75). As observed from these results, ME data acquisition and NORDIC denoising improves reliability thereby creating an opportunity to better understand early functional network architecture. We plan to substantiate these results by collecting data in more infants.

Authors

• Sanju Koirala, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• Julia Moser, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

• Thomas Madison, University of Minnesota- Twin Cities

• Lucille A Moore, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Eric Feczko, University of Minnesota

• Jed T. Elison, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Damien A. Fair, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Chad Sylvester