A client-server software application for statistical analysis of fMRI data

Statistical analysis methods used for interrogating functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data are complex and continually evolving. There exist a scarcity of educational material for fMRI. Thus, an instructional based software application was developed for teaching the fundamentals of statistical analysis in fMRI. For wider accessibility, the application was designed with a client/server architecture. The Java client has a layered design for flexibility and a nice Graphical User Interface (GUI) for user interaction. The application client can be deployed to multiple platforms in heterogeneous and distributed network. The future possibility of adding real-time data processing capabilities in the server led us to choose CGI/Perl/C as server side technologies. The client and server communicates via a simple protocol through the Apache Web Server. The application provides students with opportunities for hands-on exploration of the key concepts using phantom data as well as sample human fMRI data. The simulation allows students to control relevant parameters and observe intermediate results for each step in the analysis stream (spatial smoothing, motion correction, statistical model parameter selection etc.). Eventually this software tool and the accompanying tutorial will be disseminated to researchers across the globe via Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) portal.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Choudhary, Vijay Singh, 1979-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Randy Gollub and Steven R. Lerman.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30141

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/30141