This project undertakes the development and application of statistical methodology to neuroimaging. In particular, while brain imaging is a fundamental tool in neuroscience, the statistical treatment of the quantification of such images has lagged behind imaging technology. Numerous statistical problems are just beginning to be addressed in the analysis of neuroimages. These include: design of experiments to limit the search volume in image analysis by either a priori knowledge or a previous scan; the analysis of voxels (volume elements) of images to investigate brain volumes of change in positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) scans of the same individuals under different tasks or drugs, or of two groups of individuals; multiple comparison issues to exploit the spatial correlation and to control the experiment-wise Type 1 error of any inferences concerning a brain volume of apparent activity; techniques to analyze time-course data in functional MRI experiments; and the planning of experiments to ensure adequate power. Further, the resolution of these problems is crucial as the imaging technology continues to improve dramatically. Research has been conducted concerning receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methodology that has direct application to the evaluation of different imaging modalities. Papers have been submitted, are in review or were published in FY94 on the following topics: variability and covariability in magnetic resonance functional neuroimaging, induced ischemia in the motor areas of the brains of normal volunteers as assessed by PET scans (MNB); new computationally-intensive methodologies to evaluate ROC plots that are useful in comparison of imaging or artificial neural network modalities; a functional MRI study on cortical activation during mental calculation (MNB); statistical methodology for analysis of functional MRI data;functional MRI of motor-ideation in finger movement using time series analysis (MNB); studies of the statistical variability of metabolites in repeated MRS scans of normal volunteers and comparison of the scans of normals versus patients with cerebellar degeneration (NB); PET studies of the frequencies and the complexities of finger movements in normal volunteers using statistical methodology on the voxels (MNB); and the analysis of regional MRI volumes as function of age and gender in the brain development of children (CHP/NIMH).
