Krisztina Malisza1,2, Toby Martin3, Deborah Shiloff1, Mary Malainey4, Dickie Yu2,3
1MR R&D, NRC - Institute for
Biodiagnostics, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; 2Dept of Psychology,
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; 3St. Amant
Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; 4Dept of Anthropology, Brandon
University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
Children aged 2 to 7 years were exposed to the MR imaging environment through a series of steps typical of a research study. Their willingness to proceed through the hierarchy was used to estimate the prevalence of fear. Approximately 50% of all the children completed the hierarchy. Successful completion of the hierarchy improved with age (eg. 75% completion at ages 6-7 compared to 43% between 2-5 years). A failure rate of at least 55% should be included into group size calculations when performing studies with young pediatric subjects (2-5 years), in addition to motion and other experimental factors.
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