{
  "abstract": "Submillimeter functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal enables the study of brain function at the submillimeter level, uncovering insights into fine-scale organisations like cortical layers and columns. However, its inherently low contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) often limit its reliability and applicability. Noise Reduction with Distribution Corrected Principal Components Analysis (NORDIC PCA) is a locally low-rank denoising algorithm that reduces thermal noise levels in BOLD fMRI in a local patch manner. However, local patches often contain a mixture of signals from multiple tissues that negatively affects the low-rank structure of the patches, which limits the denoising capabilities of the algorithm. We propose an alternative approach for patch formation by gathering similar non-local voxels, dubbed voxel-matching (VM) NORDIC. The results on submillimeter-resolution BOLD fMRI data indicate that VM-NORDIC effectively promotes the low rank of the patches by boosting signal redundancy, allowing for more efficient noise attenuation. Moreover, the method barely affects spatial smoothness due to the non-local voxel selection based on time-series similarity. In particular, VM-NORDIC outperforms standard NORDIC with default local patching (Standard-NORDIC) in terms of temporal SNR (tSNR) (~9-90% larger than Standard-NORDIC; ~23-250% larger than the original) and spatial smoothness estimates (~20% of the smoothness induced by Standard-NORDIC). These improvements are fundamental to improving the validity and precision of fMRI studies at submillimeter resolutions.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University Medical Center Utrecht"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "A. Nigi"
    },
    {
      "name": "N. Petridou"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "J. C. W. Siero"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cdwnn108qaxx4.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.18.752417",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752417v1.full",
  "id": "cdwnn108qaxx4",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752417v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2741|Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213988533",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752417v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-18",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cdwnn108qaxx4.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:24Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.18.752417",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752417v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Voxel-Matching NORDIC: Non-local patch formation by time-series similarity increases tSNR in high-resolution BOLD fMRI",
  "title_text": "Voxel-Matching NORDIC: Non-local patch formation by time-series similarity increases tSNR in high-resolution BOLD fMRI",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:24Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cdwnn108qaxx4",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}