Using carpet plots to analyze transit times of low frequency oscillations in resting state fMRI

A “carpet plot” is a 2-dimensional plot (time vs. voxel) of scaled fMRI voxel intensity values. Low frequency oscillations (LFOs) can be successfully identified from BOLD fMRI and used to study characteristics of neuronal and physiological activity. Here, we evaluate the use of carpet plots paired with a developed slope-detection algorithm as a means to study LFOs in resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data with the help of dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI data. Carpet plots were constructed by ordering voxels according to signal delay time for each voxel. The slope-detection algorithm was used to identify and calculate propagation times, or “transit times”, of tilted vertical edges across which a sudden signal change was observed. We aim to show that this metric has applications in understanding LFOs in fMRI data, possibly reflecting changes in blood flow speed during the scan, and for evaluating alternative blood-tracking contrast agents such as inhaled CO2. We demonstrate that the propagations of LFOs can be visualized and automatically identified in a carpet plot as tilted lines of sudden intensity change. Resting state carpet plots produce edges with transit times similar to those of DSC carpet plots. Additionally, resting state carpet plots indicate that edge transit times vary at different time points during the scan.