The impact of data preprocessing in traumatic brain injury detection using functional magnetic resonance imaging

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can adversely affect a person´s thinking, memory, personality and behavior. For this reason new and better biomarkers are being investigated. Resting state functional network connectivity (rsFNC) derived from functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) imaging is emerging as a possible biomarker. One of the main concerns with this technique is the appropriateness of methods used to correct for subject movement. In this work we used 50 mild TBI patients and matched healthy controls to explore the outcomes obtained from different fMRI data preprocessing. Results suggest that correction for motion variance before spatial smoothing is the best alternative. Following this preprocessing option a significant group difference was found between cerebellum and supplementary motor area/paracentral lobule. In this case the mTBI group exhibits an increase in rsFNC.