Head motion during fMRI tasks is reduced in children and adults if participants take breaks

• Published in: Developmental cognitive neuroscience Vol. 44; p. 100803
• Main Authors: Meissner, Tobias W., Walbrin, Jon, Nordt, Marisa, Koldewyn, Kami, Weigelt, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2020; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Data quality; Development; Female; Head - growth & development; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Mock scanner training; Movement; Neuroimaging - methods; Original Research; Pediatric neuroimaging; Study design; Young Adult; Study design; Development; Pediatric neuroimaging; Data quality; Movement; Mock scanner training
• ISSN: 1878-9293; 1878-9307
• DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100803

•In children, fMRI data acquisition split into multiple sessions reduces head motion.•In adults, fMRI data acquisition split by inside-scanner breaks reduces head motion.•In both children and adults, motion increases over the duration of a study.•In both children and adults, motion increases over the duration of a run. Head motion remains a challenging confound in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of both children and adults. Most pediatric neuroimaging labs have developed experience-based, child-friendly standards concerning e.g. the maximum length of a session or the time between mock scanner training and actual scanning. However, it is unclear which factors of child-friendly neuroimaging approaches are effective in reducing head motion. Here, we investigate three main factors including (i) time lag of mock scanner training to the actual scan, (ii) prior scan time, and (iii) task engagement in a dataset of 77 children (aged 6–13) and 64 adults (aged 18–35) using a multilevel modeling approach. In children, distributing fMRI data acquisition across multiple same-day sessions reduces head motion. In adults, motion is reduced after inside-scanner breaks. Despite these positive effects of splitting up data acquisition, motion increases over the course of a study as well as over the course of a run in both children and adults. Our results suggest that splitting up fMRI data acquisition is an effective tool to reduce head motion in general. At the same time, different ways of splitting up data acquisition benefit children and adults.