Preparing fMRI data for statistical analysis

Abstract

Abstract This chapter (along with Chapter 13) describes the various pre-processing steps necessary to take raw data from the scanner and prepare it for the ‘heart’ of fMRI analysis, namely statistical analysis (estimating where significant activation occurred, described in Chapter 14). These pre-processing steps take the raw MR data, convert it into images that actually look like brains, then reduce unwanted noise of various types, and precondition the data, in order to aid the later statistics. Later statistical analysis is often seen as the most ‘important’ part of £MRI analysis; however, without the pre-processing steps, the statistical analysis is, at best, greatly reduced in power, and at worst, rendered invalid.