Exploring regions of interest with cluster analysis (EROICA) using a spectral peak statistic for selecting and testing the significance of fMRI activation time-series

Much relevant information about activations and artifacts in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) dataset can be obtained from an exploratory cluster analysis. In contrast to testing the significance of the measured experimental effect for a given model, unsupervised pattern recognition techniques, such as fuzzy clustering, often find unexpected behavior in addition to expected activations, allowing the exploitation of this element of surprise. The many artifact clusters often discovered might aid the experimenter in deciding whether the dataset is usable, whether some additional preprocessing step is required, or whether the one used has introduced spurious effects. However, clustering alone does not complete the analysis because the membership values that are generated are not indicative of the level of statistical significance with respect to the cluster activation patterns (centroids). This is of particular importance for fMRI datasets for which most time-series are "noise", with no activation patterns. We propose that an initial partition step should precede the clustering step. Only time-series that meet a certain statistical criterion (using a scaled version of Fisher's g-order statistic) are selected for clustering; this typically represents <5% of the whole brain region. The purpose of clustering is to generate a set of cluster centers that are the possible activation patterns; these are used in forming a linear model of all the time-series. The model parameter is tested for significance in both the time and frequency domains. We present a novel method of conducting these tests, which limits the number of false positives. We call the three-step process of initial partition, clustering and the two-domain significance test as exploring regions of interest with cluster analysis (EROICA).

[1]  B. Silverman,et al.  Some Aspects of the Spline Smoothing Approach to Non‐Parametric Regression Curve Fitting , 1985 .

[2]  Richard Baumgartner,et al.  A new statistical inference test for fMRI time-series , 2001, NeuroImage.

[3]  R. Fisher Tests of significance in harmonic analysis , 1929 .

[4]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: A general linear approach , 1994 .

[5]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Analysis of fMRI Time-Series Revisited—Again , 1995, NeuroImage.

[6]  Mark S. Cohen,et al.  Parametric Analysis of fMRI Data Using Linear Systems Methods , 1997, NeuroImage.

[7]  R Baumgartner,et al.  Fuzzy clustering of gradient‐echo functional MRI in the human visual cortex. Part I: Reproducibility , 1997, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[8]  E C Wong,et al.  Processing strategies for time‐course data sets in functional mri of the human brain , 1993, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[9]  R Baumgartner,et al.  Comparison of two exploratory data analysis methods for fMRI: fuzzy clustering vs. principal component analysis. , 2000, Magnetic resonance imaging.

[10]  Ray L. Somorjai,et al.  Exploratory analysis of fMRI data by fuzzy clustering: philosophy, strategy, tactics, implementation , 2003 .

[11]  R Baumgartner,et al.  Fuzzy clustering of gradient‐echo functional MRI in the human visual cortex. Part II: Quantification , 1997, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[12]  R. Weisskoff,et al.  Effect of temporal autocorrelation due to physiological noise and stimulus paradigm on voxel‐level false‐positive rates in fMRI , 1998, Human brain mapping.

[13]  M. D’Esposito,et al.  Empirical Analyses of BOLD fMRI Statistics , 1997, NeuroImage.

[14]  Rajesh N. Davé,et al.  Robust clustering methods: a unified view , 1997, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst..

[15]  R. Turner,et al.  Characterizing Evoked Hemodynamics with fMRI , 1995, NeuroImage.

[16]  R. L. Somorjai,et al.  Select before you fuzzy cluster: Detecting potential fMRI activations using a spectral peak measure , 2000, NeuroImage.

[17]  D. B. Preston Spectral Analysis and Time Series , 1983 .

[18]  M. D’Esposito,et al.  Empirical Analyses of BOLD fMRI Statistics , 1997, NeuroImage.

[19]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Analysis of fMRI Time-Series Revisited , 1995, NeuroImage.

[20]  Scott L. Zeger,et al.  Non‐linear Fourier Time Series Analysis for Human Brain Mapping by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging , 1997 .

[21]  Brian D. Ripley,et al.  A New Statistical Approach to Detecting Significant Activation in Functional MRI , 2000, NeuroImage.

[22]  James C. Bezdek,et al.  Pattern Recognition with Fuzzy Objective Function Algorithms , 1981, Advanced Applications in Pattern Recognition.

[23]  Friedrich T. Sommer,et al.  Exploratory analysis and data modeling in functional neuroimaging , 2003 .

[24]  Ravi S. Menon,et al.  Motor Area Activity During Mental Rotation Studied by Time-Resolved Single-Trial fMRI , 2000, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[25]  P. Diggle Time Series: A Biostatistical Introduction , 1990 .

[26]  Alan V. Oppenheim,et al.  Discrete-Time Signal Pro-cessing , 1989 .

[27]  N Lange Statistical approaches to human brain mapping by functional magnetic resonance imaging. , 1996, Statistics in medicine.

[28]  E. Bullmore,et al.  Statistical methods of estimation and inference for functional MR image analysis , 1996, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[29]  L. K. Hansen,et al.  On Clustering fMRI Time Series , 1999, NeuroImage.

[30]  Richard A. Davis,et al.  Time Series: Theory and Methods , 2013 .