DOI: 10.1073/pnas.221462998. When zero is not zero: The problem of ambiguous baseline conditions in fMRI

When zero is not zero: The problem of ambiguous baseline conditions in fMRI

10.1073/pnas.221462998

Crossref journal-article

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (341)

Abstract

By using blocked and rapid event-related functional MRI studies of memory, we explored the implications of using rest periods as a baseline condition in functional MRI studies. Activity in the medial temporal lobe (as well as in other brain regions) was substantially higher during rest than during several alternative baseline conditions. The effect of this elevated activity during rest was to reduce, eliminate, or even reverse the sign of the activity during task conditions relevant to memory functions. The results demonstrate that periods of rest are associated with significant cognitive activity and, therefore, provide a nonoptimal baseline for memory tasks. These results were observed not only when relatively long blocks of rest were used (experiment 1), but also when rest consisted of the short null trials typically used in rapid event-related designs (experiment 2). The findings have important implications for the design and interpretation of a wide range of fMRI studies of cognition.

Bibliography

Stark, C. E. L., & Squire, L. R. (2001). When zero is not zero: The problem of ambiguous baseline conditions in fMRI. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(22), 12760â12766.

Authors 2

Craig E. L. Stark (first)
Larry R. Squire (additional)

References 27 Referenced 598

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Dates

Type	When
Created	23 years, 1 month ago (July 26, 2002, 10:34 a.m.)
Deposited	3 years, 4 months ago (April 13, 2022, 8:56 a.m.)
Indexed	47 minutes ago (Aug. 30, 2025, 5:24 a.m.)
Issued	23 years, 10 months ago (Oct. 9, 2001)
Published	23 years, 10 months ago (Oct. 9, 2001)
Published Online	23 years, 10 months ago (Oct. 9, 2001)
Published Print	23 years, 10 months ago (Oct. 23, 2001)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Stark_2001, title={When zero is not zero: The problem of ambiguous baseline conditions in fMRI}, volume={98}, ISSN={1091-6490}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.221462998}, DOI={10.1073/pnas.221462998}, number={22}, journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, publisher={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}, author={Stark, Craig E. L. and Squire, Larry R.}, year={2001}, month=oct, pages={12760–12766} }

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