Hi Gonzales,
 
why do you need to do it? Can't you identify the motor strip / handknob by anatomic criteria? It most cases, this should be possible. Has the child just turned 2 or is it almost 3 years old?
If it is just 2 it may be impossible without sedation. You could still try passive flexion / extension in a block design. If it is almost 3, you may have a fair chance but probably have to invest time (at least a day or two prior to the actual run) so that the kid gets to know you and the setting.
I had a 5 year old (reported in JMRI 2006: 23, 921-32) who had never been scanned awake but was able to do it once I had spent an afternoon playing with him. He was into spacecrafts, so I told him the scanner is one he needed to repair with a wooden screwdriver. He did start and stop the movements when his daddy pressed his calf. However, try to monitor the reponses and also run melodic on the data (simply because the patient may have motor impulses you cannot easily monitor).
Also have a look at the JMRI special issue quoted above - Eleni Kotsoni et al. and Frédérique Liégeois et al. have contributed two papers specifically devoted to pediatric patients you may find useful.
But most of all, I would scrutinize the necessity to do it: even in our own case mentioned above we could have established the diagnosis without FMRI: the boy was transferred to us for tumor surgery and it turned out to be a focal cortical dysplasia, epilepsy surgery was not necessary because the seizures were eventually controlled by newer anticonvulsants. Why did they think it would be a tumor? Because it was growing but it was so just proportionally with head size!
Unfortunately, there is certainly no recipe how to approach such a case. But the first step is to review all the material available on it. Sometimes others want you to do it even if it makes no sense. For my own part, once I get consulted, I consider the case my patient and of course dare to question the indication. Then, if it is one of the very rare occasions where motor FMRI does in fact make sense to conduct, it will be largely up to you and your ingenuity how to get a good exam. Maybe, you will find some of the stuff and references helpful.
Keep me posted,
cheers-
Andreas

________________________________

Von: FSL - FMRIB's Software Library im Auftrag von Gonzalo Rojas
Gesendet: Di 29.04.2008 21:28
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Betreff: [FSL] hand motor fMRI in a child...



Hi:

   I need to do an fMRI of the motion of the hand in a 2 year old
child... Do you know any tip-and-trick ?...

   Sincerely,


--
Gonzalo Rojas Costa
Laboratory of Medical Image Processing
Department of Neuroradiology
Institute of Neurosurgery Dr. Asenjo
Jose Manuel Infante  553, Providencia, Santiago, Chile.
Tel/Fax: 56-2-5754653
Cel: 56-9-97771785
www.neurorradiologia.cl