Optimizing RetroICor and RetroKCor corrections for multi-shot 3D FMRI acquisitions

Physiological noise, if unaccounted for, can drastically reduce the statistical significance of detected activation in FMRI. In this paper, we systematically optimize physiological noise regressions for multi-shot 3D FMRI data. First, we investigate whether 3D FMRI data are best corrected in image space (RetroICor) or k-space (RetroKCor), in which each k-space segment can be assigned its unique physiological phase. In addition, the optimal regressor set is determined using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) for a variety of 3D acquisitions corresponding to different image contrasts and k-space readouts.Our simulations and experiments indicate that: (a) k-space corrections are more robust when performed on real/imaginary than magnitude/phase data; (b) k-space corrections do not outperform image-space corrections, despite the ability to synchronize physiological phase to acquisition time more accurately; and (c) the optimal model varied considerably between the various acquisition techniques. These results suggest the use of a tailored set of volume-wide regressors, determined by BIC or other selection criteria, that achieves optimal balance between variance reduction and potential over-fitting.