Graham Lab

Head Motion in fMRI and Anatomical MRI

Our laboratory focuses on addressing the challenge of head motion in both functional MRI (fMRI) and anatomical MRI, which can introduce \"artifact\" signals that can potentially degrade data quality and complicate the interpretation of brain activity. This issue is particularly relevant in patient populations, where motion artifacts are more common.
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Left: baseline condition where subject attempts to lie as still as possible. Middle: subject nods their head slightly to create motion through the plane of image acquisition. Right: subject undergoes through-plane motion during fMRI where the images are adaptively compensated for motion effects during the data acquisition process.
Images of the voxel-wise temporal standard deviation of resting-state fMRI time series data for a representative subject (Faraji-Dana et al., 2016).

Motion Suppression Strategies

Robust strategies are required to suppress this problem so that clinical and research applications of fMRI can be made practical. To mitigate motion artifacts and improve data accuracy, we have explored several key approaches:
  • Characterization of Head Motion: Careful study of head motion during motor tasks, particularly in stroke patients, and the development of behavioural tasks designed to reduce head movement during fMRI. Development of fMRI
  • Simulators: The creation of realistic fMRI mock-up systems that c can be used to optimize experimental designs or train individuals to remain still prior to scanning. Optical Position
  • Tracking Systems: Use of high-resolution tracking systems to measure head motion in real-time. We have designed and constructed several such MRI-compatible tracking systems that can adaptively move the scan plane based on tracking data, significantly reducing motion artifacts and enhancing image quality.

Featured Work

These research posters, created by our graduate student, Marina Silic, provide an in-depth look at various aspects of the ongoing research. Each poster highlights key findings and methodologies, offering a comprehensive overview of the work being done in the lab.

Explore the captions for further details.

  • Slide1 (1)
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Recent Publications

Resting State fMRI: Going Through the Motions.

Maknojia S, Churchill NW, Schweizer TA, Graham SJ. Front Neurosci. 2019 Aug 13;13:825. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00825. eCollection 2019. PMID: 31456656

Simultaneous Multislice Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 3 Tesla: Slice-Acceleration-Related Biases in Physiological Effects.

Golestani AM, Faraji-Dana Z, Kayvanrad M, Setsompop K, Graham SJ, Chen JJ. Brain Connect. 2018 Mar;8(2):82-93. doi: 10.1089/brain.2017.0491. Epub 2018 Jan 22. PMID: 29226689

Interactions between head motion and coil sensitivity in accelerated fMRI.

Faraji-Dana Z, Tam F, Chen JJ, Graham SJ. J Neurosci Methods. 2016 Sep 1;270:46-60. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2016.06.005. Epub 2016 Jun 8. PMID: 27288867