In recent years, there has been an impetus for larger magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
studies of brain function and disease to obtain more robust findings. A recent article
by Marek et al. in Nature (
1
) concluded that brain-wide association studies—studies “testing associations between
individual variability in brain structure and function and cognitive or psychiatric
symptoms”—are currently underpowered and that casts of thousands are needed to obtain reproducible
results. The study received considerable attention in the scientific community and
an article in The New York Times Magazine (
2
). The implications touched the work of many psychiatric researchers who see MRI as
a tool to finally understand brain function and mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders.- Richtel M.
Brain-imaging studies hampered by small data sets, study finds. The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/science/brain-imaging-research.html
Date: 2022
Date accessed: March 15, 2022
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References
- Reproducible brain-wide association studies require thousands of individuals.Nature. 2022; 603: 654-660
- Brain-imaging studies hampered by small data sets, study finds. The New York Times.(Available at:)https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/science/brain-imaging-research.htmlDate: 2022Date accessed: March 15, 2022
- Brain-behavior correlations: Two paths toward reliability.Neuron. 2022; 110: 1446-1449
- Stability of cortical thinning in persons at increased familial risk for major depressive disorder across 8 years.Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2017; 2: 619-625
- Childhood adversity impacts on brain subcortical structures relevant to depression.J Psychiatr Res. 2017; 86: 58-65
Article Info
Publication History
Published online: August 04, 2022
Accepted:
June 6,
2022
Received in revised form:
June 6,
2022
Received:
May 24,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Society of Biological Psychiatry.
