Comparing functional connectivity based predictive models across datasets

摘要

Resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) holds the promise of easy-to-acquire and widespectrum biomarkers. However, there are few predictivemodeling studies on resting state, and processing pipelines all vary. Here, we systematically study resting state functionalconnectivity (FC)-based prediction across three different cohorts. Analysis pipelines consist of four steps: Delineation of brain regions of interest (ROIs), ROI-level rs-fMRI time series signal extraction, FC estimation and linear model classification analysis of FC features. For each step, we explore various methodological choices: ROI set selection, FC metrics, and linear classifiers to compare and evaluate the dominant strategies for the sake of prediction accuracy. We achieve good prediction results on the three different targets. With regard to pipeline selection, we obtain consistent results in two pipeline steps -FC metrics and linear classifiers- that are vital in the diagnosis of rs-fMRI based disease biomarkers. Regarding brain ROIs selection, we observe that the effects of different diseases are best characterized by different strategies: Schizophrenia discrimination is best performed in dataset-specific ROIs, which is not clearly the case for other pathologies. Overall, we outline some dominant strategies, in spite of the specificity of each brain disease in term of FC pattern disruption.