AN EFFICIENT PROCEDURE FOR PERMUTATION TESTS IN IMAGING RESEARCH

Recent interest in hypothesis testing on functional imaging data has s purred the development of several statistical techniques. The purpose of this paper is to provide a method to reduce the computational inten sity associated with randomization tests of positron emission tomograp hy imaging data. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of tradit ional distributional hypothesis testing versus the advantages and disa dvantages of randomization tests. A method for reducing the computatio nal intensity of randomization uses a conjunction of updating and sequ enching and results in Significantly reduced processing. The running t imes of randomization methods are compared. (C) 1998 Academic Press.