Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)最新文献

{"title":"Effective connectivity between the medial temporal lobes and early visual cortex modulated by unrestricted viewing predicts memory retrieval and gaze reinstatement.","authors":"Natalia Ladyka-Wojcik, Zhong-Xu Liu, Jennifer D Ryan","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.133","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.133","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Memory and gaze behavior are intricately linked, guiding one another to extract information and create mental representations of our environment for subsequent retrieval. Recent findings from functional neuroimaging and computational modeling suggest that reciprocal interactions between the extended hippocampal system and visuo-oculomotor regions are functionally relevant for building these mental representations during visual exploration. Yet, evidence for the directionality of information flow during encoding within this reciprocal architecture in humans is limited. In the current study, we used dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to give a non-invasive account for the directional influences between these systems when new memories are created. Here, we provide novel evidence demonstrating how unrestricted, naturalistic visual exploration induces changes in this connectivity. Subsequent memory retrieval performance was also predicted by the pattern of connectivity modulated by unrestricted visual exploration, identifying the mechanism underlying a rich history of previous work linking increased gaze behavior during encoding to later memory. Together, these findings suggest that gaze behavior shapes the ways in which brain dynamics within and between the hippocampal system and early visual cortex unfold during encoding in humans. Importantly, these directional interactions support the building of coherent, lasting mental representations.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12406054/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145002126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Single scan, subject-specific component extraction in dynamic functional connectivity using dictionary learning.","authors":"Pratik Jain, Anil K Sao, Bharat Biswal","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.125","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.125","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The study of individual differences in healthy controls can provide precise descriptions of individual brain activity. Following this direction, researchers have tried to identify a subject using their functional connectivity (FC) patterns computed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of the brain. Currently, there is an emerging focus on investigating the identifiability over the temporal variability of the FC. Studies have shown that dynamic FC (dFC) can also be used to identify a subject. In this study, we propose a method using the dFC and a dictionary learning (DL) algorithm to extract the subject-specific component using a single fMRI scan. We show that once the dictionary is learned using a training set, it can be stored in memory and reused for other test subjects. Using Human connectome project (HCP) and Nathan Kline Institute (NKI) datasets, we showed that our proposed method can increase the subject identification accuracy significantly from 89.19% to 99.54% using the Schaefer atlas along with subcortical nodes from the HCP atlas. The effect of monozygotic and dizygotic twins on the subject identification was also analyzed, and the results showed no significant differences between the groups having twins and the group having unrelated subjects. This proposed method can aid in the extraction of the subject-specific components of dFC.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12406055/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145002106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Functional ultrasound (fUS) detects mild cerebral alterations using canonical correlation analysis denoising and dynamic functional connectivity analysis.","authors":"Flora Faure, Cindy Bokobza, David Guenoun, Juliette Van Steenwinckel, Pierre Gressens, Charlie Demené","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.128","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.128","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Functional ultrasound (fUS) is a promising imaging method for evaluating brain function in animals and human neonates. fUS images local cerebral blood volume changes to map brain activity. One application of fUS imaging is the quantification of functional connectivity (FC), which characterizes the strength of the connections between functionally connected brain areas. fUS-FC enables characterization of important cerebral alterations in pathological animal models, with potential for translation into identification of biomarkers of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, the sensitivity of fUS to signal sources other than cerebral activity, such as motion artifacts, cardiac pulsatility, anesthesia (if present), and respiration, limits its capacity to distinguish milder cerebral alterations. Here, we show that using canonical correlation analysis (CCA) preprocessing and dynamic functional connectivity analysis, we can efficiently decouple noise signals from the fUS-FC signal. We use this method to characterize the effects of a mild perinatal inflammation on FC in mice. The inflammation mouse model showed lower occurrence of states of high FC between the cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, and cerebellum as compared with controls, while connectivity states limited either to intracortical connections or to ventral pathways were more often observed in the inflammation model. These important differences could not be distinguished using other preprocessing techniques that we compared, such as global signal regression, highlighting the advantage of canonical correlation analysis for preprocessing fUS data. CCA preprocessing is applicable to a wide variety of fUS imaging experimental situations, from anesthetized to awake animal studies, or for neonatal, perinatal, or neurodevelopmental imaging. Beyond fUS imaging, this method can also be applied to FC data from any neuroimaging modality when the sources of noise can be spatially identified.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12406050/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145002170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tuning of cortical color mechanisms revealed using steady-state visually evoked potentials.","authors":"Ana Rozman, Dylan J Watts, Lucy P Somers, Bora Gunel, Chris Racey, Katie Barnes, Jenny M Bosten","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.130","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.130","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Color information is thought to enter the cortex via two dominant retinogeniculate pathways, one signaling teal to red, and the other violet to lime color variation. The cortex is thought to transform this representation, but the properties of human cortical color mechanisms are not very well understood. In four experiments, we characterized the tuning of cortical color mechanisms by measuring the intermodulation of steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs), thought to index the extent to which shared neural resources process stimuli flickering at different frequencies. Stimuli were isoluminant chromatic checkerboards where odd and even checks flickered at different frequencies. As hue dissimilarity between odd and even checks increased, the amplitude of an intermodulation component (I₁) at the sum of the two stimulus frequencies decreased, revealing color tuning functions. In Experiment 1, we found similar broad tuning functions for \"cardinal\" and intermediate color axes, implying the action of intermediately tuned cortical color mechanisms. In Experiment 2 we found similar tuning functions for \"checkerboards\" without perceptible edges because the checks were formed from single pixels (~0.096°), implying that the underlying neural populations do not rely on spatial chromatic edges. In Experiment 3 we found consistent color tuning functions across check sizes. In Experiment 4 we measured full 360° tuning functions and found results compatible with opponent color responses. The observed cortical color tuning functions are consistent with those measured using psychophysics and electrophysiology, implying that the method is useful for investigating color representations in the brain.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12395283/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On the analysis of functional PET (fPET)-FDG: Baseline mischaracterization can introduce artifactual metabolic (de)activations.","authors":"Sean E Coursey, Joseph Mandeville, Murray B Reed, Grant A Hartung, Arun Garimella, Hasan Sari, Rupert Lanzenberger, Julie C Price, Jonathan R Polimeni, Douglas N Greve, Andreas Hahn, Jingyuan E Chen","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.110","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.110","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Functional Positron Emission Tomography (fPET) with (bolus plus) constant infusion of [¹⁸F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), known as fPET-FDG, is a recently introduced technique in human neuroimaging, enabling the detection of dynamic glucose metabolism changes within a single scan. However, the statistical analysis of fPET-FDG data remains challenging because its signal and noise characteristics differ from both classic bolus-administration FDG PET and from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), which together compose the primary sources of inspiration for analytical methods used by fPET-FDG researchers. In this study, we present an investigation of how inaccuracies in modeling baseline FDG uptake can introduce artifactual patterns to detrended time-activity curve (TAC) residuals, potentially introducing spurious (de)activations to general linear model (GLM) analyses. By combining simulations and empirical data from both constant infusion and bolus-plus-constant infusion protocols, we evaluate the effects of various baseline modeling methods, including polynomial detrending, regression against the global mean time-activity curve, and two analytical methods based on tissue compartment model kinetics. Our findings indicate that improper baseline removal can introduce statistically significant artifactual effects, although these effects characterized in this study (~2-8%) are generally smaller than those reported by previous literature employing robust sensory stimulation (~10-30%). We discuss potential strategies to mitigate this issue, including informed baseline modeling, optimized tracer administration protocols, and careful experimental design. These insights aim to enhance the reliability of fPET-FDG in capturing true metabolic dynamics in neuroimaging research.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12395282/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neural speech tracking in noise reflects the opposing influence of SNR on intelligibility and attentional effort.","authors":"Xiaomin He, Vinay S Raghavan, Nima Mesgarani","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.126","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.126","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding speech in noise depends on several interacting factors, including the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), speech intelligibility (SI), and attentional engagement. However, how these factors relate to selective neural speech tracking remains unclear. In this study, we recorded EEG and eye-tracking data while participants performed a selective listening task involving a target talker in the presence of a competing masker talker and background noise across a wide range of SNRs. Our results revealed a non-linear relationship, where neural tracking of the target speech first increased with SNR but then paradoxically decreased as SNR continued to improve. To explain this, we quantified SI behaviorally, estimated attentional effort (AE) using gaze velocity, and measured behavioral performance (BP) via a repeated-word detection task. Our analysis showed that neural tracking of the target speech increased with both SI and attentional engagement. However, when intelligibility reached ceiling levels, selective neural speech tracking decreased as AE declined. Statistical modeling indicated that SI and AE were reliable predictors of neural tracking, while SNR showed no independent contribution after accounting for these factors. Our results demonstrate that improved SNR influences selective neural speech tracking primarily by increasing SI and simultaneously reducing AE, which have opposing effects on neural tracking. These findings underscore the importance of jointly considering these factors in studies of speech perception in noise.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12395281/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Developmental shifts in testosterone levels are associated with alterations in the neural oscillatory dynamics serving selective attention.","authors":"Jake J Son, Abraham D Killanin, Camilo A Castelblanco-Riveros, Seth D Springer, Hallie J Johnson, Hannah J Okelberry, Lucas Weyrich, Yu Ping Wang, Vince D Calhoun, Julia M Stephen, Brittany K Taylor, Giorgia Picci, Tony W Wilson","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.120","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.120","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The transition from childhood into adolescence is associated with marked increases in testosterone, a sex hormone that has been linked with significant changes in brain structure and function. However, the majority of the extant literature on sex hormone effects has focused on structural brain development, with far fewer studies examining changes in the neural dynamics serving higher-order cognitive function and behavioral improvements with development. Herein, we investigated whether the neural oscillatory dynamics serving selective attention were sensitive to testosterone levels as a marker of development in a sample of 87 participants aged 6-13 years old. Participants completed a number-based Simon task while undergoing magnetoencephalography (MEG) and the resulting data were transformed into the time-frequency domain, imaged using a beamformer, and analyzed using whole-brain analysis of covariance models. Our key findings included spectrally-specific alterations in alpha and gamma oscillatory power in the prefrontal, parietal, and temporal regions with developmental shifts in testosterone levels, after accounting for the effect of age. Additionally, sex-by-testosterone interactions were found in the anterior cingulate, prefrontal, and parietal cortices that may indicate sexually divergent brain network development during the employment of selective attention. In sum, these results provide crucial new evidence supporting a relationship between developmental changes in testosterone and functional brain dynamics in youth during a critical period for skill acquisition and refinement.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12392304/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Robust deep MRI contrast synthesis using a prior-based and task-oriented 3D network.","authors":"Sergio Morell-Ortega, Marina Ruiz-Perez, Marien Gadea, Roberto Vivo-Hernando, Gregorio Rubio, Fernando Aparici, Mariam de la Iglesia-Vaya, Thomas Tourdias, Boris Mansencal, Pierrick Coupé, José V Manjón","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.116","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.116","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most widely used tools for clinical diagnosis. Depending on the acquisition parameters, different image contrasts can be obtained, providing complementary information about the patient's anatomy and potential pathological findings. However, multiplying such acquisitions requires more time, additional resources, and increases patient discomfort. Consequently, not all image modalities are typically acquired. One solution to obtain the missing modalities is to use contrast synthesis methods. Most existing synthesis methods work with 2D slices due to memory limitations, which produces inconsistencies and artifacts when reconstructing the 3D volume. In this work, we present a 3D deep learning-based approach for synthesizing T2-weighted MR volumes from T1-weighted ones. To preserve anatomical details and enhance image quality, we propose a segmentation-oriented loss function combined with a frequency space information loss. To make the proposed method more robust and applicable to a wider range of image scenarios, we also incorporate a priori information in the form of a multi-atlas. Additionally, we employ a semi-supervised learning framework that improves the model's generalizability across diverse datasets, potentially improving its performance in clinical settings with varying patient demographics and imaging protocols. By integrating prior anatomical knowledge with frequency domain and segmentation loss functions, our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods, particularly in segmentation tasks. The method demonstrates significant improvements, especially in challenging cases, compared with state-of-the-art approaches.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12392303/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neural micro and macrostructural correlates of visual outcomes in children with unilateral cerebral palsy: A fixel-based study.","authors":"Monica Crotti, Ahmed M Radwan, Nofar Ben Itzhak, Lisa Mailleux, Lize Kleeren, Lisa Decraene, Hilde Feys, Els Ortibus","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.122","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.122","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Children with unilateral cerebral palsy (uCP) present with brain damage, predominantly lateralized to one hemisphere, and white matter (WM) lesions, which are known to affect visual functions. However, the relation between WM tract damage and visual outcomes remains unclear. Additionally, no prior study comprehensively investigated hemispheric-specific differences in WM visual pathways between children with left- and right-sided uCP. Therefore, this exploratory study aims to investigate differences in micro- and macrostructural properties of the visual pathways between children with left- and right-sided uCP and their relation to visual outcomes, using fixel-based analysis of diffusion MRI (dMRI). dMRI data and visual assessments, including visual acuity and stereoacuity (i.e., geniculostriate functions), motor-free visual perception, visuomotor integration, and functional vision, were analysed in 36 children with uCP (aged 7-15, 9 males, 17 left-sided, 15 preterm). Apparent fiber density (AFD), fiber-bundle cross-section (FC), and combined fiber density and cross-section (FDC) were calculated for 17 WM tracts related to visual functions. Differences between children with left- and right-sided uCP were investigated using the Mann-Whitney &lt;i&gt;U&lt;/i&gt;-test (&lt;i&gt;r&lt;/i&gt;) on the AFD and one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) (&lt;i&gt;η&lt;sub&gt;p&lt;/sub&gt; &lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/i&gt; ) on the FC and FDC, with age and intracranial volume as covariates. Correlations between visual outcomes and WM properties of the visual tracts were studied using (semi-partial) Spearman Rank correlations (&lt;i&gt;r&lt;sub&gt;s&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/i&gt; ). Children with left-sided uCP showed significantly lower fixel metrics in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and optic radiation. Children with right-sided uCP had lower AFD, FC, and FDC in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus only. Reduced geniculostriate visual functions and more impairments in functional vision were associated with lower fiber density (AFD), reduction in bundle size (FC), and their combination (FDC) of several WM tracts. Lower performance on motor-free visual perception and visuomotor integration showed more associations with lower fiber density (AFD). While the primary analyses were exploratory and uncorrected for multiple comparison, false discovery rate (FDR) correction was additionally performed for transparency: several differences in FC and FDC between children with left- and right-sided uCP, and correlations between AFD and visual function, remained significant and are reported in the Supplementary Materials. In conclusion, our exploratory study highlights that fixel-based analysis can provide further insights into hemispheric differences in the visual system and the complex relations between visual functions and brain damage in children with uCP. Based on our results, future studies could refine regression models to target key WM tracts linked to visual outcomes, identifying potential bioma","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12392306/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rootlets-based registration to the PAM50 spinal cord template.","authors":"Sandrine Bédard, Jan Valošek, Valeria Oliva, Kenneth A Weber Ii, Julien Cohen-Adad","doi":"10.1162/IMAG.a.123","DOIUrl":"10.1162/IMAG.a.123","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Spinal cord functional MRI studies require precise localization of spinal levels for reliable voxel-wise group analyses. Traditional template-based registration of the spinal cord uses intervertebral discs for alignment. However, substantial anatomical variability across individuals exists between vertebral and spinal levels. This study proposes a novel registration approach that leverages spinal nerve rootlets to improve alignment accuracy and reproducibility across individuals. We developed a registration method leveraging dorsal cervical rootlets segmentation and aligning them non-linearly with the PAM50 spinal cord template. Validation was performed on a multi-subject, multi-site dataset (n = 267, 44 sites) and a multi-subject dataset with various neck positions (n = 10, 3 sessions). We further validated the method on task-based functional MRI (n = 23) to compare group-level activation maps using rootlet-based registration to traditional disc-based methods. Rootlet-based registration showed superior alignment across individuals compared with the traditional disc-based method on n = 226 individuals, and on n = 176 individuals for morphological analyses. Notably, rootlet positions were more stable across neck positions. Group-level analysis of task-based functional MRI using rootlet-based registration increased Z scores and activation cluster size compared with disc-based registration (number of active voxels from 3292 to 7978). Rootlet-based registration enhances both inter- and intra-subject anatomical alignment and yields better spatial normalization for group-level fMRI analyses. Our findings highlight the potential of rootlet-based registration to improve the precision and reliability of spinal cord neuroimaging group analysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":73341,"journal":{"name":"Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12381661/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144981307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}