Rapid Precision Functional Mapping of Individuals Using Multi-Echo fMRI.

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is widely used in cognitive and clinical neuroscience, but long-duration scans are currently needed to reliably characterize individual differences in functional connectivity (FC) and brain network topology. In this report, we demonstrate that multi-echo fMRI can improve the reliability of FC-based measurements. In four densely sampled individual humans, just 10 min of multi-echo data yielded better test-retest reliability than 30 min of single-echo data in independent datasets. This effect is pronounced in clinically important brain regions, including the subgenual cingulate, basal ganglia, and cerebellum, and is linked to three biophysical signal mechanisms (thermal noise, regional variability in the rate of T ₂ ^∗ decay, and S ₀ -dependent artifacts) with spatially distinct influences. Together, these findings establish the potential utility of multi-echo fMRI for rapid precision mapping using experimentally and clinically tractable scan times and will facilitate longitudinal neuroimaging of clinical populations.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Interests C.L. is listed as an inventor for Cornell University patent applications on neuroimaging biomarkers for depression that are pending or in preparation. The authors report no biomedical financial interests or other potential conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)