{"id":522,"date":"2026-01-31T05:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T13:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/?p=522"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:19:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:19:51","slug":"data-retention-in-awake-infant-fmri-lessons-from-more-than-750-scanning-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/2026\/01\/31\/data-retention-in-awake-infant-fmri-lessons-from-more-than-750-scanning-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Data retention in awake infant fMRI: Lessons from more than 750 scanning sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/478\/2025\/06\/infa70062-fig-0001-m-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/478\/2025\/06\/infa70062-fig-0001-m-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/478\/2025\/06\/infa70062-fig-0001-m-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/478\/2025\/06\/infa70062-fig-0001-m-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Top panel: Depiction of Yale&#8217;s scanning environment including the (A) setup and personnel, (B) projection system for stimuluspresentation, and (C) apparatuses used with the infant in the scanner bore. Adapted from (Ellis et al. 2020). Bottom panel: Depiction of MIT&#8217;sscanning setup including the (D) infant setup and personnel, (E) custom size\u2010adaptive 32\u2010channel array coil used for infants, and (F) toddlersetup before entering the scanner room. Images from Figure 1D and 1E courtesy of Kris Brewer of The Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines.\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Data retention in awake infant fMRI: Lessons from more than 750 scanning sessions<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Published in Infancy\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n          <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span>Behm L, Yates TS, Trach JE, Choi D, Du H, Osumah C, Deen B, Kosakowski HL, Chen EM, Kamps FS, Olson HA, Ellis CT, Saxe R, Turk-Browne NB (2026)<\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">January 31, 2026<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n 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0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <h3>Summary<\/h3>\n<p>Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses significant methodological challenges that have hampered wider adoption. The present work takes stock after the collection of a substantial amount of awake infant fMRI data across multiple studies from two labs, at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These data were leveraged to glean insights on participant recruitment, experimental design, and data acquisition that could be useful to consider for future studies. Across 766 fMRI sessions with awake infants aged 1\u201336 months, the authors explored the factors that influenced how much usable data were obtained per session. The age of an infant predicted whether they would successfully enter the scanner (younger more likely) and, if they did enter, the number of minutes of functional data collected (linear, younger more) and retained after preprocessing with lab-specific protocols or harmonized motion exclusion thresholds (quadratic, 12\u201324 months more than younger and older). The amount of functional data retained was also influenced by assigned sex (female more), experimental paradigm (movies better than blocks and events), and stimulus content (social better than abstract). There were many differences in the research approach between labs making head-to-head comparisons difficult, but Yale was more likely to get infants into the scanner, MIT collected more data from infants who entered, and the amount of data retained after preprocessing did not differ statistically between labs (9 min). In addition, the authors assessed the value of attempting to collect multiple experiments per session, an approach that yielded more than one usable experiment averaging across all sessions. Although any given scan is unpredictable, these findings support the feasibility of awake infant fMRI and suggest practices to optimize future research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <h3>Published Resources<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/infa.70062\">Published in Infancy.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses significant methodological challenges that have hampered wider adoption. The present work takes stock after the collection of a substantial amount of awake infant fMRI data across multiple studies from two labs, at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These data were leveraged to glean insights on participant recruitment, experimental design, and data acquisition that could be useful to consider for future studies. Across 766 fMRI sessions with awake infants aged 1\u201336 months, the authors explored the factors that influenced how much usable data were obtained per session. The age of an infant predicted whether they would successfully enter the scanner (younger more likely) and, if they did enter, the number of minutes of functional data collected (linear, younger more) and retained after preprocessing with lab-specific protocols or harmonized motion exclusion thresholds (quadratic, 12\u201324 months more than younger and older). The amount of functional data retained was also influenced by assigned sex (female more), experimental paradigm (movies better than blocks and events), and stimulus content (social better than abstract). There were many differences in the research approach between labs making head-to-head comparisons difficult, but Yale was more likely to get infants into the scanner, MIT collected more data from infants who entered, and the amount of data retained after preprocessing did not differ statistically between labs (9 min). In addition, the authors assessed the value of attempting to collect multiple experiments per session, an approach that yielded more than one usable experiment averaging across all sessions. Although any given scan is unpredictable, these findings support the feasibility of awake infant fMRI and suggest practices to optimize future research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":946,"featured_media":740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,89,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awake-infant-fmri","category-methods","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Data retention in awake infant fMRI: Lessons from more than 750 scanning sessions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/2026\/01\/31\/data-retention-in-awake-infant-fmri-lessons-from-more-than-750-scanning-sessions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data retention in awake infant fMRI: Lessons from more than 750 scanning sessions - Kosakowski Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses significant methodological challenges that have hampered wider adoption. The present work takes stock after the collection of a substantial amount of awake infant fMRI data across multiple studies from two labs, at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These data were leveraged to glean insights on participant recruitment, experimental design, and data acquisition that could be useful to consider for future studies. Across 766 fMRI sessions with awake infants aged 1\u201336 months, the authors explored the factors that influenced how much usable data were obtained per session. The age of an infant predicted whether they would successfully enter the scanner (younger more likely) and, if they did enter, the number of minutes of functional data collected (linear, younger more) and retained after preprocessing with lab-specific protocols or harmonized motion exclusion thresholds (quadratic, 12\u201324 months more than younger and older). The amount of functional data retained was also influenced by assigned sex (female more), experimental paradigm (movies better than blocks and events), and stimulus content (social better than abstract). There were many differences in the research approach between labs making head-to-head comparisons difficult, but Yale was more likely to get infants into the scanner, MIT collected more data from infants who entered, and the amount of data retained after preprocessing did not differ statistically between labs (9 min). In addition, the authors assessed the value of attempting to collect multiple experiments per session, an approach that yielded more than one usable experiment averaging across all sessions. Although any given scan is unpredictable, these findings support the feasibility of awake infant fMRI and suggest practices to optimize future research.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/2026\/01\/31\/data-retention-in-awake-infant-fmri-lessons-from-more-than-750-scanning-sessions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kosakowski Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-31T13:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-29T19:19:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/478\/2025\/06\/infa70062-fig-0001-m.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1115\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Heather L Kosakowski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@heatherlkos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dornsife.usc.edu\\\/hklab\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/31\\\/data-retention-in-awake-infant-fmri-lessons-from-more-than-750-scanning-sessions\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dornsife.usc.edu\\\/hklab\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/31\\\/data-retention-in-awake-infant-fmri-lessons-from-more-than-750-scanning-sessions\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Heather L Kosakowski\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dornsife.usc.edu\\\/hklab\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba9ae58d403d462b0447f7d6feb530ae\"},\"headline\":\"Data retention in awake infant fMRI: Lessons from more than 750 scanning 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However, awake infant fMRI poses significant methodological challenges that have hampered wider adoption. The present work takes stock after the collection of a substantial amount of awake infant fMRI data across multiple studies from two labs, at Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These data were leveraged to glean insights on participant recruitment, experimental design, and data acquisition that could be useful to consider for future studies. Across 766 fMRI sessions with awake infants aged 1\u201336 months, the authors explored the factors that influenced how much usable data were obtained per session. The age of an infant predicted whether they would successfully enter the scanner (younger more likely) and, if they did enter, the number of minutes of functional data collected (linear, younger more) and retained after preprocessing with lab-specific protocols or harmonized motion exclusion thresholds (quadratic, 12\u201324 months more than younger and older). The amount of functional data retained was also influenced by assigned sex (female more), experimental paradigm (movies better than blocks and events), and stimulus content (social better than abstract). There were many differences in the research approach between labs making head-to-head comparisons difficult, but Yale was more likely to get infants into the scanner, MIT collected more data from infants who entered, and the amount of data retained after preprocessing did not differ statistically between labs (9 min). In addition, the authors assessed the value of attempting to collect multiple experiments per session, an approach that yielded more than one usable experiment averaging across all sessions. Although any given scan is unpredictable, these findings support the feasibility of awake infant fMRI and suggest practices to optimize future research.","og_url":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/2026\/01\/31\/data-retention-in-awake-infant-fmri-lessons-from-more-than-750-scanning-sessions\/","og_site_name":"Kosakowski Lab","article_published_time":"2026-01-31T13:46:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-29T19:19:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2128,"height":1115,"url":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/hklab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/478\/2025\/06\/infa70062-fig-0001-m.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Heather L 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