Higher Sensitivity and Reproducibility of Wavelet-Based Amplitude of Resting-State fMRI

The fast Fourier transform (FFT) is a widely used algorithm used to depict the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI). Wavelet transform (WT) is more effective in representing the complex waveform due to its adaptivity to non-stationary or local features of data and many varieties of wavelet functions with different shapes being available. However, there is a paucity of RS-fMRI studies that systematically compare between the results of FFT versus WT. The present study employed five cohorts of datasets and compared the sensitivity and reproducibility of FFT-ALFF with those of Wavelet-ALFF based on five mother wavelets (namely, db2, bior4.4, morl, meyr, and sym3). In addition to the conventional frequency band of 0.0117–0.0781 Hz, a comparison was performed in sub-bands, namely, Slow-6 (0–0.0117 Hz), Slow-5 (0.0117–0.0273 Hz), Slow-4 (0.0273–0.0742 Hz), Slow-3 (0.0742–0.1992 Hz), and Slow-2 (0.1992–0.25 Hz). The results indicated that the Wavelet-ALFF of all five mother wavelets was generally more sensitive and reproducible than FFT-ALFF in all frequency bands. Specifically, in the higher frequency band Slow-2 (0.1992–0.25 Hz), the mean sensitivity of db2-ALFF results was 1.54 times that of FFT-ALFF, and the reproducibility of db2-ALFF results was 2.95 times that of FFT-ALFF. The findings suggest that wavelet-ALFF can replace FFT-ALFF, especially in the higher frequency band. Future studies should test more mother wavelets on other RS-fMRI metrics and multiple datasets.