How Psychological Scores Influence Head Motion in Resting-State fMRI

The relationship between psychological health and head motion during resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) helps improve data quality. This study explores the links between the scores of the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-42 (DASS-42) and head motion parameters, such as mean and maximum framewise displacement (FD), as well as mean and maximum translational and rotational movements in healthy individuals. After motion correction in the preprocessing of the rs-fMRI, we performed a correlation analysis to reveal the relationship between psychological scores and motion parameters. Our results showed significant correlations between psychological scores and motion parameters. Specifically, higher scores on the somatic dysfunction subscales of the GHQ-28 test were linked to larger translational and rotational movements. Similarly, increased anxiety and stress scores from the DASS-42 test were associated with higher levels of motion. These findings suggest that assessing participants’ psychological health can help predict their head motion during scanning, which is crucial for selecting participants in fMRI studies to ensure high data quality and prevent the loss of resources due to high motion artifacts in fMRI data. Incorporating psychological health assessments into the subject selection process may reduce motion-related artifacts and enhance the reliability of fMRI data.