Study design in fMRI: basic principles

Abstract

There is a wide range of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study designs available for the neuroscientist who wants to investigate cognition. In this manuscript we review some aspects of fMRI study design, including cognitive comparison strategies (factorial, parametric designs), and stimulus presentation possibilities (block, event-related, rapid event-related, mixed, and self-driven experiment designs) along with technical aspects, such as limitations of signal to noise ratio, spatial, and temporal resolution. We also discuss methods to deal with cases where scanning parameters become the limiting factor (parallel acquisitions, variable jittered designs, scanner acoustic noise strategies).