A recent study has revealed research approaches that connect brain structure and function to behavior and health.
Brain-wide association studies, which utilize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to explore links between brain structure or function and various aspects of human behavior or health, have been criticized for yielding results that frequently fail to be replicated by other researchers.
A new article published in Nature shows that meticulously planning study designs can greatly enhance the reliability of such research. The study, conducted by Kaidi Kang, a PhD student in biostatistics, and Simon Vandekar, PhD, an associate professor of Biostatistics, along with their team, examined data from over 77,000 brain scans collected from 63 different studies.
The researchers discovered that by consciously choosing study participants to reflect a wider array of characteristics, studies can produce more trustworthy results. For instance, when investigating age-related changes in the brain, including a diverse group with participants from both younger and older age brackets leads to more reliable findings compared to methods like random sampling or focusing solely on middle-aged individuals.
Additionally, the study indicated that taking multiple brain scans from the same participant over time might enhance reliability for certain brain measurements, but could decrease it for others, depending on the focus of the research.
Based on these insights, the authors provide valuable recommendations for scientists who are planning upcoming brain imaging studies, which could help them achieve dependable results with fewer participants involved.
Kang and Vandekar collaborated with researchers from six institutions across the U.S. and the U.K. Other contributors from Vanderbilt included Jiangmei Xiong, MS, Megan Jones, Ran Tao, PhD, and Jonathan Schildcrout, PhD. This research was made possible by funding from the National Institutes of Health (grants R01MH123563, R01MH132934, R01MH133843, K23DA057486, R01MH120482, R01MH112847, R01MH113550, R01EB022573, R37MH125829).
