Showing papers by "Bertrand Thirion published in 2007"

Fast reproducible identification and large-scale databasing of individual functional cognitive networks.

Abstract: Background Although cognitive processes such as reading and calculation are associated with reproducible cerebral networks, inter-individual variability is considerable. Understanding the origins of this variability will require the elaboration of large multimodal databases compiling behavioral, anatomical, genetic and functional neuroimaging data over hundreds of subjects. With this goal in mind, we designed a simple and fast acquisition procedure based on a 5-minute functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sequence that can be run as easily and as systematically as an anatomical scan, and is therefore used in every subject undergoing fMRI in our laboratory. This protocol captures the cerebral bases of auditory and visual perception, motor actions, reading, language comprehension and mental calculation at an individual level.

Structural Analysis of fMRI Data Revisited: Improving the Sensitivity and Reliability of fMRI Group Studies

Abstract: Group studies of functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets are usually based on the computation of the mean signal across subjects at each voxel (random effects analyses), assuming that all subjects have been set in the same anatomical space (normalization). Although this approach allows for a correct specificity (rate of false detections), it is not very efficient for three reasons: i) its underlying hypotheses, perfect coregistration of the individual datasets and normality of the measured signal at the group level are frequently violated; ii) the group size is small in general, so that asymptotic approximations on the parameters distributions do not hold; iii) the large size of the images requires some conservative strategies to control the false detection rate, at the risk of increasing the number of false negatives. Given that it is still very challenging to build generative or parametric models of intersubject variability, we rely on a rule based, bottom-up approach: we present a set of procedures that detect structures of interest from each subject's data, then search for correspondences across subjects and outline the most reproducible activation regions in the group studied. This framework enables a strict control on the number of false detections. It is shown here that this analysis demonstrates increased validity and improves both the sensitivity and reliability of group analyses compared with standard methods. Moreover, it directly provides information on the spatial position correspondence or variability of the activated regions across subjects, which is difficult to obtain in standard voxel-based analyses.

High level group analysis of FMRI data based on dirichlet process mixture models

Abstract: Inferring the position of functionally active regions from a multi-subject fMRI dataset involves the comparison of the individual data and the inference of a common activity model. While voxel-based analyzes, e.g. Random Effect statistics, are widely used, they do not model each individual activation pattern. Here, we develop a new procedure that extracts structures individually and compares them at the group level. For inference about spatial locations of interest, a Dirichlet Process Mixture Model is used. Finally, inter-subject correspondences are computed with Bayesian Network models. We show the power of the technique on both simulated and real datasets and compare it with standard inference techniques.

Challenging the estimation of cortical activity from MEG with simulated fMRI-constrained retinotopic maps

Abstract: Detection of activity from the primary visual cortex is a difficult challenge to magneto-encephalography (MEG) source imaging techniques: the geometry of the visual cortex is intricate, with structured visual field maps extending deeper along the calcarine fissure. This questions the very sensitivity of MEG to the corresponding neural responses of visual stimuli and the usage of MEG source imaging for innovative retinotopic explorations. In this context, we compare two imaging models of MEG generators in realistic simulations of activations within the visual cortex. Localization and spatial extent of neural activity in the visual cortex were extracted from retinotopic maps obtained in fMRI. We prove that the suggested approaches are robust and succeed in accurately recovering the activation patterns with satisfactory match with fMRI results. These results suggest that fast retinotopic exploration of the visual cortex could be obtained from MEG as a complementary alternative to more standard fMRI approaches. The excellent time resolution of MEG imaging further opens interesting perspectives on the temporal and spectral processes sustained by the human visual system.

Technical Note Mixed-effect statistics for group analysis in fMRI: A nonparametric maximum likelihood approach

Abstract: This technical note describes a collection of test statistics accounting for estimation uncertainties at the within-subject level, that can be used as alternatives to the standard t statistic in one-sample random-effect analyses, i.e. when testing the mean effect of a population. We build such test statistics by estimating the across-subject distribution of the effects using maximum likelihood under a nonparametric mixed-effect model. For inference purposes, the statistics are calibrated using permutation tests to achieve exact false positive control under a symmetry assumption regarding the across-subject distribution. The new tests are implemented in a freely available toolbox for SPM called