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Quality Assurance in Functional MRI

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fMRI: From Nuclear Spins to Brain Functions

Part of the book series: Biological Magnetic Resonance ((BIMR,volume 30))

Abstract

Since its inception two decades ago, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become a leading tool for noninvasive studies of the human brain. fMRI studies require both the rapid acquisition of many brain images over a sustained period of time and a high level of MRI system stability in order to detect small activity-related fluctuations in the MR signal. These rigorous requirements have driven many improvements in the performance of MRI systems. Quality assurance (QA) procedures are critical for identifying issues with system performance and ensuring that the desired level of system stability and image quality is achieved. In addition, ongoing QA of experimental data is important for detecting issues with not only the MRI system but also other key experimental elements such as task performance, movement artifacts, and stimulus presentation equipment. Given the large size of the datasets generated by fMRI studies, QA processes rely heavily on computer-based analyses coupled with the assessment of the QA metrics by a human expert. A well-designed QA process is especially critical for ensuring data quality and uniformity for fMRI studies involving multiple sites. These multicenter studies have a number of advantages, such as increased sample size, and are becoming more widely adopted.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Functional MRI and Department of Radiology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 92093-0677, MC 0677, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Thomas T. Liu PhD & Kun Lu PhD

  2. Department of Radiology, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, CA, USA

    Gary H. Glover PhD

  3. Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Minneapolis VA Healthcare System and Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, 55454, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Bryon A. Mueller PhD & Kelstvin O. Lim MD

  4. Martinos Center and Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 02115, Boston, MA, USA

    Douglas N. Greve PhD

  5. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, 92617, Irvine, CA, USA

    Jerod Rasmussen MS, Theo G. M. van Erp PhD, David B. Keator MS, Adrian Preda MD & Steven G. Potkin MD

  6. Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    James T. Voyvodic PhD, Michele Diaz PhD & Syam Gadde BS

  7. Mind Research Network, 1101 Yale Blvd. NE, 87106, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Jessica A. Turner PhD & Vince D. Calhoun PhD

  8. Department of Psychiatry & Brain Imaging and EEG Laboratory, San Francisco and San Francisco VA Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Daniel H. Mathalon PhD, MD & Judith M. Ford PhD

  9. VA San Diego Healthcare System and Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Gregory G. Brown PhD

  10. Department of ECE, University of New Mexico, 87131, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Vince D. Calhoun PhD

  11. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju-si, Korea

    Hyo Jong Lee PhD

  12. Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, 52240, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Daniel S. O’Leary PhD

  13. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Brockton VAMC, 02115, Boston, MA, USA

    Cynthia G. Wible PhD

  14. Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Hal S. Stern PhD

  15. Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Aysenil Belger PhD

  16. Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Gregory McCarthy PhD

  17. Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Burak Ozyurt PhD

  18. Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Jessica A. Turner PhD

  19. Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark

    Kasper Andersen PhD

Authors
  1. Thomas T. Liu PhD
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  2. Gary H. Glover PhD
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  3. Bryon A. Mueller PhD
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  4. Douglas N. Greve PhD
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  5. Jerod Rasmussen MS
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  6. James T. Voyvodic PhD
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  7. Jessica A. Turner PhD
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  8. Theo G. M. van Erp PhD
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  9. Daniel H. Mathalon PhD, MD
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  10. Kasper Andersen PhD
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  11. Kun Lu PhD
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  12. Gregory G. Brown PhD
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  13. David B. Keator MS
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  14. Vince D. Calhoun PhD
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  15. Hyo Jong Lee PhD
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  16. Judith M. Ford PhD
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  17. Michele Diaz PhD
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  18. Daniel S. O’Leary PhD
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  19. Syam Gadde BS
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  20. Adrian Preda MD
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  21. Kelstvin O. Lim MD
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  22. Cynthia G. Wible PhD
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  23. Hal S. Stern PhD
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  24. Aysenil Belger PhD
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  25. Gregory McCarthy PhD
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  26. Burak Ozyurt PhD
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  27. Steven G. Potkin MD
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FBIRN

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas T. Liu PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Kamil Uludag

  2. University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Kamil Ugurbil

  3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Lawrence Berliner

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Liu, T. et al. (2015). Quality Assurance in Functional MRI. In: Uludag, K., Ugurbil, K., Berliner, L. (eds) fMRI: From Nuclear Spins to Brain Functions. Biological Magnetic Resonance, vol 30. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7591-1_10

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