Special considerations for functional magnetic resonance imaging of pediatric populations

Functional MRI (fMRI) provides a noninvasive means of studying both typical and atypical brain development in vivo. However, the developmental and clinical status of the populations of interest impact how neuroimaging data should be collected, analyzed, and interpreted. In the present work, we review methodological and theoretical issues relevant to developmental and clinical neuroimaging research and provide possible approaches for addressing each. These issues include accounting for differences in biological noise, neuroanatomy, motion, and task performance. Finally, we emphasize the importance of a converging methods approach in constraining and supporting interpretations of pediatric imaging results.