Independent Component Analysis and Artifact Removal in Human Calf Muscle Functional MRI

Nicole Damara Fichtner^1,2, Ewald Moser¹, Michael Wolzt², Albrecht Ingo Schmid^1,2

Human calf muscle functional magnetic resonance imaging data, taken while simulating ischemia and acquired using echo planar imaging, can have many artifacts, particularly those from motion. Using temporal independent component analysis (ICA) on this type of data is a novel technique for separating the time-courses into various components. We show that it is possible to separate and remove artifacts from physiologically relevant information using temporal ICA. The remaining components can mostly be associated with various physiological effects, including those related to ischemia. The removal of artifacts and separation into components will improve the ease of further statistical analysis.