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Abstract #2828

Improved sensitivity of spinal fMRI by using physiological recordings in general linear model analysis

Stroman P
Queen's University

Errors are inherent in all fMRI results, and require efforts to minimize their occurrence. In spinal fMRI an error in a single pixel can have more of an impact than in the brain because of the smaller spatial extent of the spinal gray matter. The dominant source of errors in spinal fMRI is hypothesized to be the motion of the cord and artefacts from respiration. Therefore all of the sources of errors would be related to cardiac and respiratory motion. A means of reducing the errors was investigated based on inclusion of physiological recordings in the general linear model.