Robustness of post-reconstruction and direct kinetic parameter estimates under rigid head motion in dynamic brain PET imaging

•Inter-frame motion can disrupt TACs, leading to erroneous parametric maps.•A variety of clinically observed motion patterns were realistically simulated.•4-D reconstruction sensitive to motion, with parameter bias spatially propagating.•Kinetic parameter bias heavily depends on the time point of motion initiation.•Important during prolonged data acquisition in neuro-receptor imaging studies.