Shared and Subject-Specific Dictionary Learning (ShSSDL) Algorithm for Multisubject fMRI Data Analysis.

Abstract

Analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from multiple subjects is at the heart of many medical imaging studies, and approaches based on dictionary learning (DL) are recently noted as promising solutions to the problem. However, the DL-based methods for fMRI analysis proposed to date do not naturally extend to multisubject analysis. In this paper, we propose a DL algorithm for multisubject fMRI data analysis. The proposed algorithm [named shared and subject-specific dictionary learning (ShSSDL)] is derived based on a temporal concatenation, which is particularly attractive for the analysis of multisubject task-related fMRI datasets. It differs from existing DL algorithms in both its sparse coding and dictionary update stages and has the advantage of learning a dictionary shared by all subjects as well as a set of subject-specific dictionaries. The performance of the proposed DL algorithm is illustrated using simulated and real fMRI datasets. The results show that it can successfully extract shared as well as subject-specific latent components. In addition to offering a new DL approach, when applied on multisubject fMRI data analysis, the proposed algorithm generates a group level as well as a set of subject-specific spatial maps. The proposed algorithm has the advantage of learning simultaneously multiple dictionaries providing us with a shared as well discriminative source of information about the analyzed fMRI datasets.