Activelets: Wavelets for sparse representation of hemodynamic responses

We propose a new framework to extract the activity-related component in the BOLD functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal. As opposed to traditional fMRI signal analysis techniques, we do not impose any prior knowledge of the event timing. Instead, our basic assumption is that the activation pattern is a sequence of short and sparsely distributed stimuli, as is the case in slow event-related fMRI.