Peiying Liu1, Andrew C. Hebrank2,
Blair Flicker2, Denise C. Park2, Hanzhang Lu1
1Advanced Imaging Research
Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United
States; 2Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at
Dallas, Dallas, TX, United States
In order for fMRI to be possibly used as a personalized diagnostic tool, it is critical to understand and account for the considerable inter-subject variations in fMRI responses. A few physiologic modulators have been reported that could explain such variations and may potentially be used for fMRI normalization, including baseline venous oxygenation, cerebrovascular reactivity, resting state BOLD signal fluctuation and baseline cerebral blood flow. This work extends previous findings in block-design to event-related design which are more widely used in cognitive neuroscience and clinical studies, and showed the modulation effect of physiologic parameters on fMRI signals in different brain regions.