Effect of thermal and physiological denoising on laminar functional connectivity

Motivation: Characterizing layer functional connectivity (FC) can provide information on the direction of information flow and hierarchical relationships between brain areas. Goal(s): This study aims at evaluating the impact of thermal and physiological denoising on laminar FC strength. Approach: A gradient echo BOLD dataset with an in-plane resolution of 0.8 mm acquired at 7T was denoised with a set of commonly used denoising strategies and FC in the primary motor cortex was evaluated. Results: We found that denoising impacts the shape of laminar FC profiles by various extent; physiological denoising might represent a crucial step for a correct evaluation of laminar FC. Impact: High-resolution BOLD-fMRI data can provide information on laminar functional connectivity (FC), but physiological and thermal noise could strongly degrade signal quality and bias results. This study quantifies the impact of different denoising strategies in the estimation of laminar FC strength.