Behavioral interventions for reducing head motion during MRI scans in children

&NA; A major limitation to structural and functional MRI (fMRI) scans is their susceptibility to head motion artifacts. Even submillimeter movements can systematically distort functional connectivity, morphometric, and diffusion imaging results. In patient care, sedation is often used to minimize head motion, but it incurs increased costs and risks. In research settings, sedation is typically not an ethical option. Therefore, safe methods that reduce head motion are critical for improving MRI quality, especially in high movement individuals such as children and neuropsychiatric patients. We investigated the effects of (1) viewing movies and (2) receiving real‐time visual feedback about head movement in 24 children (5–15 years old). Children completed fMRI scans during which they viewed a fixation cross (i.e., rest) or a cartoon movie clip, and during some of the scans they also received real‐time visual feedback about head motion. Head motion was significantly reduced during movie watching compared to rest and when receiving feedback compared to receiving no feedback. However, these results depended on age, such that the effects were largely driven by the younger children. Children older than 10 years showed no significant benefit. We also found that viewing movies significantly altered the functional connectivity of fMRI data, suggesting that fMRI scans during movies cannot be equated to standard resting‐state fMRI scans. The implications of these results are twofold: (1) given the reduction in head motion with behavioral interventions, these methods should be tried first for all clinical and structural MRIs in lieu of sedation; and (2) for fMRI research scans, these methods can reduce head motion in certain groups, but investigators must keep in mind the effects on functional MRI data. HighlightsIn young children, movie watching during MRI scans reduces head motion.Real‐time head motion feedback also reduces motion during MRI scans in young children.Motion effects were specific to younger (5‐10 years) not older children (11‐15 years).Movies, but not feedback, significantly alter functional connectivity MRI data.

[1]  M. Corbetta,et al.  Right Hemisphere Dominance during Spatial Selective Attention and Target Detection Occurs Outside the Dorsal Frontoparietal Network , 2010, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[2]  R. C. Oldfield.  The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. , 1971, Neuropsychologia.

[3]  A. Snyder,et al.  Longitudinal analysis of neural network development in preterm infants. , 2010, Cerebral cortex.

[4]  Christopher Kroenke,et al.  Isoflurane Anesthesia Has Long-term Consequences on Motor and Behavioral Development in Infant Rhesus Macaques , 2017, Anesthesiology.

[5]  Abraham Z. Snyder,et al.  Real-time motion analytics during brain MRI improve data quality and reduce costs , 2017, NeuroImage.

[6]  M. Dylan Tisdall,et al.  Head motion during MRI acquisition reduces gray matter volume and thickness estimates , 2015, NeuroImage.

[7]  Catherine E Lang,et al.  Upper-limb activity in adults: referent values using accelerometry. , 2013, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[8]  M. Fox,et al.  Spontaneous fluctuations in brain activity observed with functional magnetic resonance imaging , 2007, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[9]  Kristina M. Visscher,et al.  A Core System for the Implementation of Task Sets , 2006, Neuron.

[10]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Movement‐Related effects in fMRI time‐series , 1996, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[11]  D. Andropoulos,et al.  Anesthesia and Developing Brains—Implications of the FDA Warning , 2017 .

[12]  Christos Davatzikos,et al.  Benchmarking of participant-level confound regression strategies for the control of motion artifact in studies of functional connectivity , 2017, NeuroImage.

[13]  Catherine E. Lang,et al.  Upper Extremity Use in People with Hemiparesis in the First Few Weeks After Stroke , 2007, Journal of neurologic physical therapy : JNPT.

[14]  John H. Gilmore,et al.  Network-Level Connectivity Dynamics of Movie Watching in 6-Year-Old Children , 2015, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[15]  William D. Shannon,et al.  Statistical Object Data Analysis of Taxonomic Trees from Human Microbiome Data , 2012, PloS one.

[16]  J. Constantino,et al.  Validation of a Brief Quantitative Measure of Autistic Traits: Comparison of the Social Responsiveness Scale with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised , 2003, Journal of autism and developmental disorders.

[17]  Nancy Kanwisher,et al.  Spurious group differences due to head motion in a diffusion MRI study , 2013, NeuroImage.

[18]  Timothy O. Laumann,et al.  Developmental Changes in the Organization of Functional Connections between the Basal Ganglia and Cerebral Cortex , 2014, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[19]  Evan M. Gordon,et al.  Evidence for Two Independent Factors that Modify Brain Networks to Meet Task Goals. , 2016, Cell reports.

[20]  Mark A. Elliott,et al.  Impact of in-scanner head motion on multiple measures of functional connectivity: Relevance for studies of neurodevelopment in youth , 2012, NeuroImage.

[21]  James D. A. Parker,et al.  The Revised Conners' Parent Rating Scale (CPRS-R): Factor Structure, Reliability, and Criterion Validity , 1998, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[22]  N J Robertson,et al.  Impact of anaesthetics and surgery on neurodevelopment: an update. , 2013, British journal of anaesthesia.

[23]  P. Harris,et al.  Research electronic data capture (REDCap) - A metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support , 2009, J. Biomed. Informatics.

[24]  Jenifer Juranek,et al.  Children’s head motion during fMRI tasks is heritable and stable over time , 2017, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.

[25]  Timothy O. Laumann,et al.  Methods to detect, characterize, and remove motion artifact in resting state fMRI , 2014, NeuroImage.

[26]  Elena Deych,et al.  Gibbs distribution for statistical analysis of graphical data with a sample application to fcMRI brain images , 2016, Statistics in medicine.

[27]  Mert R. Sabuncu,et al.  The influence of head motion on intrinsic functional connectivity MRI , 2012, NeuroImage.

[28]  S. Petersen,et al.  Multivariate pattern classification of pediatric Tourette syndrome using functional connectivity MRI , 2016, Developmental science.

[29]  Melissa L. Allen,et al.  Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test , 2021, Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

[30]  Timothy O. Laumann,et al.  Functional Network Organization of the Human Brain , 2011, Neuron.

[31]  D. Hu,et al.  Neurobiological basis of head motion in brain imaging , 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[32]  Jessica F. Cantlon,et al.  Neural Activity during Natural Viewing of Sesame Street Statistically Predicts Test Scores in Early Childhood , 2013, PLoS biology.

[33]  Bruce Fischl,et al.  Volumetric navigators for prospective motion correction and selective reacquisition in neuroanatomical MRI , 2012, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[34]  Jack L. Lancaster,et al.  A modality‐independent approach to spatial normalization of tomographic images of the human brain , 1995 .

[35]  S. Petersen,et al.  A dual-networks architecture of top-down control , 2008, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[36]  M. Fox,et al.  The global signal and observed anticorrelated resting state brain networks. , 2009, Journal of neurophysiology.

[37]  Swathi P. Iyer,et al.  Distinct neural signatures detected for ADHD subtypes after controlling for micro-movements in resting state functional connectivity MRI data , 2012, Front. Syst. Neurosci..

[38]  Danielle S Bassett,et al.  Motion artifact in studies of functional connectivity: Characteristics and mitigation strategies , 2019, Human brain mapping.

[39]  Tamara Vanderwal,et al.  Inscapes: A movie paradigm to improve compliance in functional magnetic resonance imaging , 2015, NeuroImage.

[40]  Evan M. Gordon,et al.  Functional System and Areal Organization of a Highly Sampled Individual Human Brain , 2015, Neuron.

[41]  Alexandra Sebastian,et al.  Improving MRT image quality in patients with movement disorders. , 2013, Acta neurochirurgica. Supplement.

[42]  Viviana Betti,et al.  Natural Scenes Viewing Alters the Dynamics of Functional Connectivity in the Human Brain , 2013, Neuron.

[43]  E. Taub,et al.  Objective measurement of functional upper-extremity movement using accelerometer recordings transformed with a threshold filter. , 2000, Stroke.

[44]  M C Gilardi,et al.  Head holder for PET, CT, and MR studies. , 1991, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[45]  B. Schlaggar,et al.  Considerations for MRI study design and implementation in pediatric and clinical populations , 2015, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.

[46]  J. Parker,et al.  The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC): factor structure, reliability, and validity. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[47]  N. Ryan,et al.  Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL): initial reliability and validity data. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[48]  Yihong Yang,et al.  Head motion suppression using real-time feedback of motion information and its effects on task performance in fMRI , 2005, NeuroImage.

[49]  Justin L. Vincent,et al.  Distinct brain networks for adaptive and stable task control in humans , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[50]  C. Lang,et al.  An Accelerometry-Based Methodology for Assessment of Real-World Bilateral Upper Extremity Activity , 2014, PloS one.

[51]  Abraham Z. Snyder,et al.  Spurious but systematic correlations in functional connectivity MRI networks arise from subject motion , 2012, NeuroImage.

[52]  Evan M. Gordon,et al.  Precision Functional Mapping of Individual Human Brains , 2017, Neuron.

[53]  A. Kouwe,et al.  Real‐time motion and B0 correction for localized adiabatic selective refocusing (LASER) MRSI using echo planar imaging volumetric navigators , 2012, NMR in biomedicine.

[54]  Jonathan M. Koller,et al.  Brain structure in pediatric Tourette syndrome , 2016, Molecular Psychiatry.

[55]  Tessy M. Lal,et al.  Real time functional MRI training to decrease motion in imaging studies: Lack of significant improvement. , 2016, Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic.