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False discovery rate correction promotes confounded neuroimaging designs.

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False discovery rate (FDR) corrections in neuroimaging can inadvertently promote poorly controlled studies. Spurious activations from flawed experiments may falsely lower significance thresholds elsewhere, impacting research integrity.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroimaging
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Research Methodology

Background:

  • The False Discovery Rate (FDR) is widely used for multiple comparisons in neuroimaging.
  • FDR corrections aim to control the proportion of false positives among rejected null hypotheses.
  • However, the adaptive nature of FDR may have unintended consequences in complex research designs.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate a potential problematic outcome of FDR correction in neuroimaging.
  • To demonstrate how FDR may inadvertently promote the publication of poorly controlled experiments.
  • To explore the impact of confounding factors and publication bias on FDR-corrected results.

Main Methods:

  • Monte Carlo simulations were employed to demonstrate the core phenomenon.
  • Further simulations were conducted to assess realistic confounding scenarios.
  • The interaction between FDR, confounding, and publication bias was simulated.

Main Results:

  • FDR correction can lower significance thresholds in response to spurious activations from poorly controlled experiments.
  • This effect can be exacerbated in realistic confounding scenarios.
  • The interaction with publication bias can further distort research findings.

Conclusions:

  • The adaptive thresholding of FDR, while generally beneficial, poses risks in the presence of confounding.
  • FDR corrections may inadvertently increase the likelihood of publishing flawed neuroimaging studies.
  • Mitigation strategies are needed to address these potential issues and ensure research rigor.