A fMRI data processing method using projection technique

Data acquired for a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) slice are often distorted by head motion. As a result, information regarding task-induced signal changes cannot be correctly extracted. Presented here is a novel technique for performing two-dimensional rigid-body image registration addressing the head motion problem in fMRI. The approach is based on a one-dimensional projection of a segmented two-dimensional characteristic image, in which the translation and rotation parameters are obtained by comparison between the projection of an image and a registration table created by projections of a selected two-dimensional image with various rotated angles. In such an approach, the general two-dimensional optimization procedure is replaced by a linear projection calculation and a finite comparison with a registration table, thus the amount of computation is considerably reduced. The method was confirmed by simulation test and a preliminary application to vivo fMRI data based visual stimulation.