Functional Connectivity and Autism

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Here’s a link to an MNT writeup of Case Western Reserve & U of T research using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study connectivity between brain regions in autism : Brain Activity Distinguishes An Autistic Brain From A Non-Autistic Brain.

L. García Domínguez, J. L. Pérez Velázquez and R. F. Galán (2013)
A Model of Functional Brain Connectivity and Background Noise as a Biomarker for Cognitive Phenotypes: Application to Autism. PLoS One. 8(4):e61493.

 

Power failure: Why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience (NatRevNeurosci)

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Analysis

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, advance online publication, Published online 10 April 2013| doi:10.1038/nrn3475

Power failure: why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience

Katherine S. Button1,2, John P. A. Ioannidis3, Claire Mokrysz1, Brian A. Nosek4, Jonathan Flint5, Emma S. J. Robinson6 & Marcus R. Munafò1  About the authors

Link to full paper.

Abstract

A study with low statistical power has a reduced chance of detecting a true effect, but it is less well appreciated that low power also reduces the likelihood that a statistically significant result reflects a true effect. Here, we show that the average statistical power of studies in the neurosciences is very low. The consequences of this include overestimates of effect size and low reproducibility of results. There are also ethical dimensions to this problem, as unreliable research is inefficient and wasteful. Improving reproducibility in neuroscience is a key priority and requires attention to well-established but often ignored methodological principles.

Author affiliations

  1. School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TU, UK.
  2. School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 2BN, UK.
  3. Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
  4. Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA.
  5. Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK.
  6. School of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK.

Correspondence to: Marcus R. Munafò1 Email: email hidden; JavaScript is required

Published online 10 April 2013

Brain, Consciousness, Experience (AAA panel, November 2013)

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Invited Panel Organized by
Bryan Rill (Florida State University)

American Anthropological Association
112th Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL
November 20-24th, 2013

Chair: Greg Downey (Macquarie University, AUS)

Discussant: Andreas Roepstorff (Aarhus University, Denmark)

Summary of Participants:
Christopher Lynn (University of Alabama) Defraying the Costs of “Analysis Paralysis”: A Neuroanthropological Model of Dissociation, Deafferentation, and Trance.
Diane Hardgrave (Southern Methodist University) Altered Narratives: A Neuroanthropological Comparison of Anomalous Experiences During Meditation and Ethnographic Accounts of Shamanic Flight.
Jeff MacDonald (IRCO) Reexamining Near-Death and other Experiences of the Beyond in Cultural Perspective: Implications for the Anthropology of Consciousness.
Charles Laughlin (Carleton University) Anatta: The Implications of the Experience of No-Self for the Neuroanthropology of Self and Death.
Bryan Rill (Florida State University) You are the Mountain: Modeling Religious Experience in Light of Cognitive Neuroscience.