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How functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data are analyzed depends on the researcher and the toolbox used. It is not uncommon that the processing pipeline is rewritten for each new dataset. Consequently, code transparency, quality control and objective analysis pipelines are important for improving reproducibility in neuroimaging studies. Toolboxes, such as Nipype and fMRIPrep, have documented the need for and interest in automated pre-processing analysis pipelines. Recent developments in data-driven models combined with high resolution neuroimaging dataset have strengthened the need not only for a standardized preprocessing workflow, but also for a reliable and comparable statistical pipeline. Here, we introduce fMRIflows: a consortium of fully automatic neuroimaging pipelines for fMRI analysis, which performs standard preprocessing, as well as 1st- and 2nd-level univariate and multivariate analyses. In addition to the standardized pre-processing pipelines, fMRIflows provides flexible temporal and spatial filtering to account for datasets with increasingly high temporal resolution and to help appropriately prepare data for advanced machine learning analyses, improving signal decoding accuracy and reliability. This paper first describes fMRIflows' structure and functionality, then explains its infrastructure and access, and lastly validates the toolbox by comparing it to other neuroimaging processing pipelines such as fMRIPrep, FSL and SPM. This validation was performed on three datasets with varying temporal sampling and acquisition parameters to prove its flexibility and robustness. fMRIflows is a fully automatic fMRI processing pipeline which uniquely offers univariate and multivariate single-subject and group analyses as well as pre-processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upper extremity (UE) impairments in infants with cerebral palsy (CP) result from reduced quality of motor experiences and "noisy" sensory inputs. We hypothesized that a neuroscience-based multi-component intervention would improve somatosensory processing and motor measures of more-affected (UEs) in infants with CP and asymmetric UE neurologic impairments, while remaining safe for less-affected UEs. Our randomized controlled trial compared infants (6–24 months) with CP receiving intervention (N = 37) versus a waitlisted group (N = 36). Treatment effects tested a direct measurement of reach smoothness (3D-kinematics), a measure of unimanual fine motor function (Bayley unimanual fine motor raw scores), and EEG measures of cortical somatosensory processing. The four-week therapist-directed, parent-administered intervention included daily (1) bimanual play; (2) less-affected UE wearing soft-constraint (6 h/day, electronically-monitored); (3) reach training on more-affected UE; (4) graduated motor-sensory training; and (5) parent education. Waitlist infants received only bimanual play. Effectiveness and safety were tested; z-scores from 54 posttest-matched typically-developing infants provided benchmarks for treatment effects. Intervention and waitlist infants had no pretest differences. Median weekly constraint wear was 38 h; parent-treatment fidelity averaged > 92%. On the more affected side, the intervention significantly increased smoothness of reach (Cohen's d = − 0.90; p <.001) and unimanual fine motor skill (d = 0.35; p =.004). Using unadjusted p values, intervention improved somatosensory processing (d = 0.53; p =.04). All intervention effects referenced well to typically developing children. Safety of the intervention was demonstrated through positive- or non-effects on measurements involving the constrained, less-affected UE and gross motor function; unexpected treatment effects on reach smoothness occurred in less-affected UEs (d = − 0.85; p =.01). This large clinical trial demonstrated intervention effectiveness and safety for developing sensory and motor systems with improvements in reach smoothness, and developmental abilities. Clinical Trail Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02567630, registered October 5, 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]