Utility of T2-Weighted Anatomical Images for fMRI Physiological Noise Visualization

Raquel Phillips¹, Vadim Zotev¹, Jonathan Savitz¹, Ruben Alvarez¹, W. Kyle Simmons¹, Patrick Bellgowan¹, Wayne Drevets¹, Jerzy Bodurka¹

Physiological noise is a major confounding factor in BOLD fMRI. We will show the utility of T2-weighted anatomical fast-spin-echo images for fMRI physiological noise visualization. We propose a method for processing T1- and T2-weighted anatomical high-resolution images that highlights brain compartmentalization at lower fMRI resolution. Such images are formed by computing spatial standard deviation (SD_s) from neighboring voxel intensities within the anatomical volume. Because of the large signal difference with fast-spin-echo between cerebrospinal fluid, grey matter, and/or vasculature, the T2-based SD_s image predicts well the brain areas where the fMRI signal temporal variation will be present.