Abstract

Please note a later start! 12:50 (after a project presentation).

Speaker: Ruben Klinger, Technical University of Munich.

Title: Data-Driven Approaches for Addressing Head Motion Bias in Structural MRI Brain Morphometry

Abstract: Head motion during structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) introduces systematic biases, such as artificial cortical thinning, which confound morphometric analyses in clinical and aging studies. This study evaluates two distinct data-driven approaches to mitigate this motion bias: including a data-quality metric as a nuisance covariate in downstream statistical modeling and retrospective k-space motion correction. First, for the covariate approach, a novel deep-learning-based image motion score is compared against the traditional Euler number. Results demonstrate that the deep learning metric more effectively captures motion variance between groups and therefore provides a greater corrective effect when used as a nuisance covariate. However, because this approach cannot recover lost anatomical information, a purely data-driven k-space correction method (MotionTTT) is also evaluated. By estimating motion trajectories directly from undersampled data and then correcting for this motion during image reconstruction, MotionTTT successfully recovered severely corrupted scans that typically fail automated segmentation pipelines and eliminates up to 0.3 mm of artificial cortical thinning bias in morphometric measurements, returning measurements to levels statistically equivalent to uncorrupted ground-truth data. In conclusion, while the statistical covariate approach offers a highly practical solution for mitigating bias in legacy datasets, retrospective k-space correction represents the gold standard for prospective studies, as it prevents the exclusion of patient data and restores true anatomical information.

Bio: I am a Master’s student in Robotics, Cognition, and Intelligence at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), currently completing a research internship at the MRC CBU under Dr. Marta Correia. I also hold a B.Sc. in Engineering Science from TUM .

Venue: MRC CBU West Wing Seminar Room and Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82385113580?pwd=RmxIUmphQW9Ud1JBby9nTDQzR0NRdz09 (Meeting ID: 823 8511 3580; Passcode: 299077)