ArticleNeuroImage2017
The global signal in fMRI: Nuisance or Information?
Article in NeuroImage, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 252 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
252 citing papers in PubMed.
- Altered resting-state functional connectivity in lung cancer patients with comorbid depressive symptoms.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Aging, brain network connectivity, and cognition: evidence from resting-state dynamic arterial spin labeling.NeuroImage · 2026Article
- Altered seed-to-whole-brain functional connectivity of goal-directed/habitual systems in obsessive-compulsive disorder: associated genes and preliminary classification potential.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Resting state brain activity and association with transfer of cognitive training gains.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- Neurobiological and behavioral relevance of intrinsic functional connectome constraints on task-evoked neural activation.iScience · 2026Article
- Human cerebral cortex organization characterized by functional PET-FDG "Metabolic Connectivity".European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2026Article
- The Impact of Denoising Approaches on the Relationship Between Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic Status and Network Topology Measures.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Mapping the functional connectome between grey matter and white matter.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Leveraging Task FMRI Data to Extract Resting-State Metrics in Brain Tumor and Healthy Populations.Clinical neuroradiology · 2026Article
- Age-Related Low Frequency Amplitude Differences in Resting-State Blood Oxygenation Level-Dependent Signal in the Cerebellum.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Typically Viewed as "Noise" Has Clinical Relevance in Psychiatry.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Global Signal Removal (GSR) as graph spatial filtering.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Measurement of electrochemical brain activity with fast-scan cyclic voltammetry during functional magnetic resonance imaging.Nature protocols · 2026Review
- Psilocybin shapes the slow, global propagation of brain activity over the cortical layout of 5HT2a receptors.Communications biology · 2026Article
- A new fMRI quality metric using multi-echo information: Theory, validation and implications.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sleep deprivation exhibits an age-dependent effect on infraslow global brain activity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Multimodal evidence for hippocampal engagement and modulation by functional connectivity-guided parietal TMS.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Test-retest reliability and symptom association of personalized depression TMS targets: A comparative study of refined seed-based (RSA) and hierarchical clustering (HCA) approaches.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2026Article
- Human Cerebral Cortex Organization Characterized by Functional PET-FDG "Metabolic Connectivity".bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Comparing local brain activity and distant functional connectivity in transgender women compared to cisgender controls.Scientific reports · 2026Article
192 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The global signal is widely used as a regressor or normalization factor for removing the effects of global variations in the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. However, there is considerable controversy over its use because of the potential bias that can be introduced when it is applied to the analysis of both task-related and resting-state fMRI studies. In this paper we take a closer look at the global signal, examining in detail the various sources that can contribute to the signal. For the most part, the global signal has been treated as a nuisance term, but there is growing evidence that it may also contain valuable information. We also examine the various ways that the global signal has been used in the analysis of fMRI data, including global signal regression, global signal subtraction, and global signal normalization. Furthermore, we describe new ways for understanding the effects of global signal regression and its relation to the other approaches.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.