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How Many Subjects Constitute a Study?
Abstract
In fMRI there are two classes of inference: one aims to make a comment about the "typical" characteristics of a population, and the other about "average" characteristics. The first pertains to studies of normal subjects that try to identify some qualitative aspect of normal functional anatomy. The second class necessarily applies to clinical neuroscience studies that want to make an inference about quantitative differences of a regionally specific nature. The first class of inferences is adequately serviced by conjunction analyses and fixed-effects models with relatively small numbers of subjects. The second requires random-effect analyses and larger cohorts.
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“However, small sample sizes can be informative about typicality of a feature in a population, when features are identified in the majority of cases sampled[18].”
From In vivo PET imaging of neuroinflammation in familial frontotemporal dementia (2021) · cites this paper as [18]
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Valid conjunction inference with the minimum statistic
Nichols, T. E., Brett, M., Andersson, J., Wager, T. D., & Poline, J. (2005) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.12.005 · Cited by 1,854
The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love
Bartels, A., & Zeki, S. (2004) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.11.003 · Cited by 1,497
“This is a population test where the significance values assigned to each voxel indicate the likelihood of its being activated in the whole population from which the sample (our 19 subjects) has been drawn (Friston et al., 1999).”
BackgroundThe neurology of syntax: Language use without Broca's area
Grodzinsky, Y. (2000) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00002399 · Cited by 1,192
Partially overlapping neural networks for real and imagined hand movements.
Gerardin, E. (2000) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/10.11.1093 · Cited by 930
“…normalized using the same transformation and smoothed with a Gaussian spatial filter to a final smoothness of 5 mm. Data were analyzed on an individual (subject per subject) basis and across subjects (group analysis) using across subjects variance (random effect analysis) (Friston et al., 1999).”
MethodNeural Circuits Underlying Imitation Learning of Hand Actions
Buccino, G., Vogt, S., Ritzl, A., Fink, G. R., Zilles, K., Freund, H.-J., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(04)00181-3 · Cited by 926
Metadata
- Authors
- Friston, K. J., Holmes, A. P., & Worsley, K. J.
- Affiliations
- National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (GB)
- ORCID
- Friston, Karl J.
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1999-07
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-5
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1966363088
- Cited by
- 814
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 35 · 2012: 30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- sample size, functional MRI, statistical inference, population inference, fixed effects model, random effects models, conjunction analysis, clinical neuroscience, functional anatomy, cohort size
- MeSH terms
- Data Interpretation, Statistical, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Research Design, Models, Statistical, Cohort Studies, Patient Selection
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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