The use of MRI scans to study links between brain structure and depression, autism or personality traits may not be reliable unless studies include thousands of participants – and most average just 23.
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Brain scanning studies that use magnetic resonance imaging machines are often said to show links between the brain’s structure or patterns of activity and complex traits such as depression, autism and certain aspects of personality. But for years, there have been suspicions that some of theAlmost all such research so far has had too few participants to find reliable results, according to a study byat Washington University in St Louis and his colleagues.
Marek and his team analysed results from three of the largest ongoing neuroimaging studies to date, including the UK Biobank study, which had scanned nearly 36,000 participants at the time. They looked at links between brain structure or functioning and two relatively well-studied traits: cognitive ability and, in children, scores on a checklist for “psychopathology”, a combination of several behavioural measures.
Although Marek’s team only looked at two traits, it is likely that its conclusion that these kinds of brain scanning studies need thousands of participants is true more broadly, saysThere is no reason to think that complex intellectual traits like people’s appetite for risk-taking or their political leanings will necessarily have any manifestation in brain tissues that would be visible on a scan, says Mitchell.
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