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Paper Detail

Paper: PS-1A.37
Session: Poster Session 1A
Location: H Lichthof
Session Time: Saturday, September 14, 16:30 - 19:30
Presentation Time:Saturday, September 14, 16:30 - 19:30
Presentation: Poster
Publication: 2019 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, 13-16 September 2019, Berlin, Germany
Paper Title: Power, positive predictive value, and sample size calculations for random field theory-based fMRI inference
Manuscript:  Click here to view manuscript
License: Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32470/CCN.2019.1050-0
Authors: Dirk Ostwald, Sebastian Schneider, Rasmus Bruckner, Lilla Horvath, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Abstract: Recent discussions on the reproducibility of task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have emphasized the importance of power and sample size calculations in fMRI study planning. In general, statistical power and sample size calculations are dependent on the statistical inference framework that is used to test hypotheses. Bibliometric analyses suggest that random field theory (RFT)-based voxel- and cluster-level fMRI inference are the most commonly used approaches for the statistical evaluation of task-related fMRI data. However, general power and sample size calculations for these inference approaches remain elusive. Based on the mathematical theory of RFT-based inference, we here develop power and positive predictive value (PPV) functions for voxel- and cluster-level inference in both uncorrected single test and corrected multiple testing scenarios. Moreover, we apply the theoretical results to evaluate the sample size necessary to achieve desired power and PPV levels based on an fMRI pilot study and find that minimal sample sizes of 40 to 50 participants are required for corrected cluster-level inference at medium effect sizes.