Method for retrospective estimation of natural head movement during structural MRI

Head motion during brain structural MRI scans biases brain morphometry measurements but quantitative retrospective methods estimating head motion from structural MRI have not been evaluated.To verify the hypothesis that two metrics retrospectively computed from MR images: 1) average edge strength (AES, reduced with image blurring) and 2) entropy (ENT, increased with blurring and ringing artifacts) could be sensitive to in-scanner head motion during acquisition of TRetrospective.In all, 83 healthy control (HC) and 120 Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.3D magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo (MPRAGE) images at 3T.We 1) compared AES and ENT distribution between HC and PD; 2) evaluated the correlation between tremor score (TS) and AES (or ENT) in PD; and 3) investigated cortical regions showing an association between AES (or ENT) and local and network-level covariance measures of cortical thickness (CT), gray to white matter contrast (GWC) and gray matter density maps (GMx).1) Student's t-test. 2) Spearman's rank correlation. 3) General linear model and partial least square analysis.AES, but not ENT, differentiated HC and PD (P = 0.02, HC median AES = 39.8, interquartile range = 9.8, PD median AES = 37.6, interquartile range = 8.1). In PD, AES correlated negatively with TS (ρ = -0.21, P = 0.02) and showed a significant relationship (|Z|3, P 0.001) with structural covariance of CT and GWC in 54 out of 68 cortical regions.In clinical populations prone to head motion, AES can provide a reliable retrospective index of motion during structural scans, identifying brain areas whose morphometric measures covary with motion.3 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;48:927-937.