Search

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology is popularly used in many fields for studying how the brain reacts to mental stimuli. The identification of optimal fMRI experimental designs is crucial for rendering precise statistical inference on brain functions, but research on this topic is very lacking. We develop a general theory to guide the selection of fMRI designs for estimating a hemodynamic response function (HRF) that models the effect over time of the mental stimulus, and for studying the comparison of two HRFs. We provide a useful connection between fMRI designs and circulant biased weighing designs, establish the statistical optimality of some well-known fMRI designs and identify several new classes of fMRI designs. Construction methods of high-quality fMRI designs are also given., Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/15-AOS1352 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)

Previous studies on event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experimental designs are primarily based on linear models, in which a known shape of the hemodynamic response function (HRF) is assumed. However, the HRF shape is usually uncertain at the design stage. To address this issue, we consider a nonlinear model to accommodate a wide spectrum of feasible HRF shapes, and propose efficient approaches for obtaining maximin and maximin-efficient designs. Our approaches involve a reduction in the parameter space and a search algorithm that helps to efficiently search over a restricted class of designs for good designs. The obtained designs are compared with traditional designs widely used in practice. We also demonstrate the usefulness of our approaches via a motivating example., Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/13-AOAS658 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)