Christopher Paul Pawela1,2, B Douglas Ward2, Rupeng Li2, Bharat B. Biswal3, James S. Hyde2
1Department of Plastic Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA; 2Department of Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA; 3Department of Radiology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA
The number of subjects needed to determine information about BOLD signal changes during task performance is a matter of debate. Every fMRI experiment is different; however, information can be learned by studying sensory stimulation in a highly controlled animal model. In this study, BOLD activation voxel area and intensity are measured in response to different frequencies of forepaw stimulation. The results demonstrate that the area of activation is a more sensitive parameter for this task than the area-under-the-curve for the BOLD signal, and indicates that a larger sample size may be needed than was previously assumed.
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