Applications of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have provided novel insights into the neuropathophysiology of major psychiatric, neurological, and substance abuse disorders and their treatments. Modern activation studies often compare localized task induced changes in brain activity between experimental groups. Complementary approaches consider the ensemble of voxels constituting an anatomically defined region of interest (ROI) or summary statistics (e.g. means) of the ROI. In this work, we present a Bayesian extension of voxel-level analyses that offers several notable benefits. Among these, it combines whole-brain voxel-by-voxel modeling and ROI analyses within a unified framework. Secondly, the model allows for the study of inter-regional (long-range) correlations as well as intra-regional (short-range) correlations. Estimation is performed using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques implemented via Gibbs sampling. We apply our Bayesian hierarchical model to fMRI data from a study of inhibitory control in cocaine-dependent men.
Audio (MP3 File, Podcast Ready)
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.