Fixing the stimulus-as-fixed-effect fallacy in task fMRI.

Wellcome Open Research
Jacob WestfallTal Yarkoni

Abstract

Most functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments record the brain's responses to samples of stimulus materials (e.g., faces or words). Yet the statistical modeling approaches used in fMRI research universally fail to model stimulus variability in a manner that affords population generalization, meaning that researchers' conclusions technically apply only to the precise stimuli used in each study, and cannot be generalized to new stimuli. A direct consequence of this stimulus-as-fixed-effect fallacy is that the majority of published fMRI studies have likely overstated the strength of the statistical evidence they report. Here we develop a Bayesian mixed model (the random stimulus model; RSM) that addresses this problem, and apply it to a range of fMRI datasets. Results demonstrate considerable inflation (50-200% in most of the studied datasets) of test statistics obtained from standard "summary statistics"-based approaches relative to the corresponding RSM models. We demonstrate how RSMs can be used to improve parameter estimates, properly control false positive rates, and test novel research hypotheses about stimulus-level variability in human brain responses.

References

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Nov 5, 2003·Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology = Revue Canadienne De Psychologie Expérimentale·Jeroen G W Raaijmakers
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May 21, 2013·NeuroImage·David C Van EssenUNKNOWN WU-Minn HCP Consortium
Aug 12, 2014·Journal of Experimental Psychology. General·Jacob WestfallCharles M Judd
Apr 29, 2015·Frontiers in Neuroinformatics·Krzysztof J GorgolewskiDaniel S Margulies
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Nov 4, 2016·Behavior Research Methods·Katie WolsieferCharles M Judd

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Citations

Feb 3, 2018·The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology : QJEP·Khena M Swallow, Stav Atir
Jun 6, 2018·Frontiers in Neuroscience·Samuel A NastaseJames V Haxby
Aug 30, 2018·Frontiers in Neuroscience·Rena FukunagaJoshua W Brown
May 21, 2019·Spatial Cognition and Computation·Derek J Huffman, Arne D Ekstrom
Nov 14, 2020·NeuroImage·Tamara VanderwalF Xavier Castellanos
Jan 9, 2021·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Sofia SeinfeldBeatrice de Gelder
Jan 7, 2019·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Shelly R CooperTodd S Braver

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Software Mentioned

PyMC3 Python
Stan
NiPyMC
BUGS
lme4
FSL
SAS
NeuroVault API
Theano
JAGS

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