Characterizing functional connectivity differences in aging adults using machine learning on resting state fMRI data

Svyatoslav Vergun, Alok Deshpande, Timothy B. Meier, Jie Song, Dana L. Tudorascu, Veena A. Nair, Vikas Singh, Bharat B. Biswal, Mary Elizabeth Meyerand, Rasmus M. Birn, Vivek Prabhakaran

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

65 Scopus citations

Abstract

The brain at rest consists of spatially distributed but functionally connected regions, called intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs). Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) has emerged as a way to characterize brain networks without confounds associated with task fMRI such as task difficulty and performance. Here we applied a Support Vector Machine (SVM) linear classifier as well as a support vector machine regressor (SVR) method to rs-fMRI data in order to compare age related differences in four of the major functional brain networks: the default, cingulo-opercular, fronto-parietal and sensorimotor. A linear SVM classifier discriminated between young and old subjects with 84% accuracy (p-value < 1 × 10-7). A linear SVR age predictor performed reasonably well in continuous age prediction (R2 = 0.419, p-value < 1 × 10-8). These findings reveal that differences in intrinsic connectivity as measured with rs-fMRI exist between subjects, and that SVM methods are capable of detecting and utilizing these differences for classification and prediction.

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalFrontiers in Computational Neuroscience
Issue numberAPR 2013
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2 2013
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Neuroscience (miscellaneous)
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Reorganization
  • Resting state fMRI
  • Support vector machine

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