论文标题

一种用于从体素级BOLD信号估算区域功能连接性的混合模型方法

A Mixed Model Approach for Estimating Regional Functional Connectivity from Voxel-level BOLD Signals

论文作者

Zhang, Chao, Tran, Chau, Achard, Sophie, Meiring, Wendy, Petersen, Alexander

论文摘要

静止状态大脑功能连通性量化了大脑区域之间的相似性,每个脑区域都由体素组成,在该体素中,通过神经成像技术获得动态信号,例如功能磁共振成像中的血氧级依赖性信号。神经科学家已经采用了皮尔逊相关性和类似的指标来估计区域间连通性,通常是在区域内的信号平均之后。但是,每个区域内的信号与噪声的存在之间的依赖性可能污染这种区域间相关估计值。我们提出了一个具有新颖的协方差结构的混合效应模型,该模型明确地分离了观察到的粗体信号中不同可变性来源,包括相关的区域信号,局部时空变异性和测量误差。将讨论解决与受限最大似然估计相关的计算挑战的方法。讨论了较大的样本特性并用于不确定性定量。仿真结果表明,提出的模型参数的参数可以准确估算,并且在存在时空噪声的情况下优于平均值的Pearson相关性。所提出的模型还应用于从大鼠收集的粗体信号的真实数据集中,以构建单个大脑网络。

Resting state brain functional connectivity quantifies the similarity between brain regions, each of which consists of voxels at which dynamic signals are acquired via neuroimaging techniques such as blood-oxygen-level-dependent signals in functional magnetic resonance imaging. Pearson correlation and similar metrics have been adopted by neuroscientists to estimate inter-regional connectivity, usually after averaging of signals within regions. However, dependencies between signals within each region and the presence of noise could contaminate such inter-regional correlation estimates. We propose a mixed-effects model with a novel covariance structure that explicitly isolates the different sources of variability in the observed BOLD signals, including correlated regional signals, local spatiotemporal variability, and measurement error. Methods for tackling the computational challenges associated with restricted maximum likelihood estimation will be discussed. Large sample properties are discussed and used for uncertainty quantification. Simulation results demonstrate that the parameters of the proposed model parameters can be accurately estimated and is superior to the Pearson correlation of averages in the presence of spatiotemporal noise. The proposed model is also applied to a real data set of BOLD signals collected from rats to construct individual brain networks.

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