Influence of study design on effects of mask wearing on fMRI BOLD contrast and systemic physiology — A comment on Law et al. (2021)

In a study by Law and colleagues recently published in Neuroimage, the authors reported that wearing a surgical mask during an fMRI scan leads to a statistically significant subject-specific change (30%) in the baseline BOLD level in gray matter, although the response to a sensory-motor task was una...

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Published inNeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 244; p. 118549
Main Authors Scholkmann, F., Fischer, J.B., Frisk, L. Kobayashi, Delgado-Mederos, R., Mayos, M., Highton, D., Wolf, U., Wolf, M., Durduran, T.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Elsevier Inc 01.12.2021
Elsevier Limited
Elsevier
Subjects
Carbon dioxide
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Gray Matter
Humans
Investigations
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Masks
Neuroimaging
Physiology
Research Design
Respiration
Scanners
Sensorimotor integration
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Statistical analysis
Substantia grisea
Ventilation
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Summary:In a study by Law and colleagues recently published in Neuroimage, the authors reported that wearing a surgical mask during an fMRI scan leads to a statistically significant subject-specific change (30%) in the baseline BOLD level in gray matter, although the response to a sensory-motor task was unaffected. An average increase in end-tidal CO2 of 7.4% was found when wearing a mask, despite little support in the literature for major effects of mask wearing on blood gas levels. We comment on these findings, point out a several relevant limitations of the study design and provide alternative interpretations of these data.
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ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118549