Head motion during MRI acquisition reduces gray matter volume and thickness estimates
Open accessAbstract
Imaging biomarkers derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data are used to quantify normal development, disease, and the effects of disease-modifying therapies. However, motion during image acquisition introduces image artifacts that, in turn, affect derived markers. A systematic effect can be problematic since factors of interest like age, disease, and treatment are often correlated with both a structural change and the amount of head motion in the scanner, confounding the ability to distinguish biology from artifact. Here we evaluate the effect of head motion during image acquisition on morphometric estimates of structures in the human brain using several popular image analysis software packages (FreeSurfer 5.3, VBM8 SPM, and FSL Siena 5.0.7). Within-session repeated T1-weighted MRIs were collected on 12 healthy volunteers while performing different motion tasks, including two still scans. We show that volume and thickness estimates of the cortical gray matter are biased by head motion with an average apparent volume loss of roughly 0.7%/mm/min of subject motion. Effects vary across regions and remain significant after excluding scans that fail a rigorous quality check. In view of these results, the interpretation of reported morphometric effects of movement disorders or other conditions with increased motion tendency may need to be revisited: effects may be overestimated when not controlling for head motion. Furthermore, drug studies with hypnotic, sedative, tranquilizing, or neuromuscular-blocking substances may contain spurious "effects" of reduced atrophy or brain growth simply because they affect motion distinct from true effects of the disease or therapeutic process.
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Strong artifacts due to motion have been noted in diffusion weighted imaging and cortical thickness measurements.
“Strong artifacts due to motion, in addition to their relevance for fMRI, have been noted in diffusion weighted imaging (Roalf et al., 2016; Yendiki et al., 2014) and cortical thickness measurements (Reuter et al., 2015; Savalia et al., 2017).”
From Development of large-scale functional networks from birth to adulthood: A guide to the neuroimaging literature (2017) · cites this paper as Reuter et al., 2015
Motion tends to reduce estimates of grey-matter volume and cortical thickness and can influence observed trajectories of cortical thickness maturation.
“Motion tends to reduce estimates of grey-matter volume and cortical thickness221 and can influence observed trajectories of cortical thickness maturation as well27.”
From Imaging structural and functional brain development in early childhood (2018) · cites this paper as [221]
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- Authors
- Reuter, M., Tisdall, M. D., Qureshi, A., Buckner, R. L., van der Kouwe, A. J. W., & Fischl, B.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Reuter, Martin
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-02
- Volume
- 107
- Pages
- 107-115
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4300248
- OpenAlex
- W2055132316
- Cited by
- 457
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 33 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 58 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 44 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 24.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (1K25-CA181632-01)
- NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD071664, K99-HD074649)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R21-MH096559)
- National Center for Research Resources (P41-RR014075, U24-RR021382, 1UL1-RR025758-01, 1S10-RR023401, 1S10-RR019307, 1S10-RR023043)
- National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (8P41-EB015896-15)
- National Institute on Aging (5R01-AG008122-23, 2R01-AG016495, R21-AG046657)
- National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (5R21-NS072652-02, 5R01-NS070963-03, 1R01-NS083534)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Keywords
- head movement, MRI artifacts, gray matter volume, cortical thickness, brain morphometry, T1-weighted imaging, FreeSurfer, imaging biomarkers
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Algorithms, Humans, Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Quality Control, Biomarkers, Linear Models, Artifacts, Head Movements, Gray Matter
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