Where It All Starts: A Statistical Dive into fMRI Data of Neonatal Brain

This study explores the statistics of hemodynamic response function and the activation areas in neonatal brain imaging, namely functional magnetic resonance imaging data, during resting state. We highlight a methodology for joint analysis of the hemodynamic response and of the brain re-gions activation to identify a reference physiological state for the study of neonatal brain development. Additionally, we compare the response and activation features of neonates with that of adult subjects. Our research identifies a description of newborn fMRI resting state activity to be used as a reference to identify further brain development in pediatric subjects.