[Freesurfer] Difficult results from our PD data

2013-02-05 Thread Berg, S.F. van den


Dear Freesurfer experts,



We investigated the relation between cortical thickness and performance on 
several cognitive tasks within a large group of Parkinson’s disease patients, 
but are slightly puzzled by the results. We obtained several, both in the 
vertex-wise analysis in qdec and in the SPSS analysis in the a-priori 
parcelated areas, negative correlations (i.e. better performance relates to a 
thinner cortical area) for all our neuropsychological tasks. These negative 
correlations were unexpected and we are having a hard time interpreting them. 
After correcting for multiple comparisons, all effects failed to reach the 
statistical threshold, rendering no results at all. When we compared our 
patient group on a structural level with healthy controls, we did find expected 
results that made sense.

We also ran the exact same analyses (same group, same data) in VBM and there 
found several positive task-related correlations in expected areas.

We noticed that in previous literature almost no studies investigated the 
relation between cortical thickness and cognitive task-performance. This made 
us wonder whether Freesurfer is suited for these correlation-based analyses, or 
is it better to be used in between group analyses? And do you have any idea on 
how to explain our negative correlations? Is it possible we might have done 
something wrong?



Many thanks,



Stan
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Re: [Freesurfer] Difficult results from our PD data

2013-02-05 Thread Bruce Fischl

Hi Stan

we have found positive correlations between performance (in this case 
CVLT) and thickness, so it is certainly possible. And negative correlations 
aren't necssarily false - you could certainly imagine that successful 
pruning for example could help performance. Have you visually inspected the 
surfaces for accuracy?


cheers
Bruce


On Tue, 5 Feb 2013, Berg, 
S.F. van den wrote:



 

Dear Freesurfer experts,

 

We investigated the relation between cortical thickness and performance on 
several cognitive tasks within a large group of
Parkinson?s disease patients, but are slightly puzzled by the results. We 
obtained several, both in the vertex-wise analysis
in qdec and in the SPSS analysis in the a-priori parcelated areas, negative 
correlations (i.e. better performance relates
to a thinner cortical area) for all our neuropsychological tasks. These 
negative correlations were unexpected and we are
having a hard time interpreting them. After correcting for multiple 
comparisons, all effects failed to reach the
statistical threshold, rendering no results at all. When we compared our 
patient group on a structural level with healthy
controls, we did find expected results that made sense.

We also ran the exact same analyses (same group, same data) in VBM and there 
found several positive task-related
correlations in expected areas.  

We noticed that in previous literature almost no studies investigated the 
relation between cortical thickness and
cognitive task-performance. This made us wonder whether Freesurfer is suited 
for these correlation-based analyses, or is
it better to be used in between group analyses? And do you have any idea on how 
to explain our negative correlations? Is
it possible we might have done something wrong? 

 

Many thanks,

 

Stan


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Re: [Freesurfer] Difficult results from our PD data

2013-02-06 Thread Berg, S.F. van den
Hi Bruce, 

I checked the surface of every subject with tksurfer, inaccuracy's were founded 
in 13 of 140 subjects. These subjects were manually edited with control points 
and pial edits. Then i start recon-all on the subjects with edits again. After 
these procedure tksurfer showed a correct segmentation. Is that the correct 
procedure for checking inaccuracy's? Or do i need to check more?  

http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/FsTutorial/ControlPoints

http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/FsTutorial/PialEdits

Many thanks,

Stan



From: Bruce Fischl [fis...@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu]
Sent: 05 February 2013 15:54
To: Berg, S.F. van den
Cc: Freesurfer@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: [Freesurfer] Difficult results from our PD data

Hi Stan

we have found positive correlations between performance (in this case
CVLT) and thickness, so it is certainly possible. And negative correlations
aren't necssarily false - you could certainly imagine that successful
pruning for example could help performance. Have you visually inspected the
surfaces for accuracy?

cheers
Bruce


On Tue, 5 Feb 2013, Berg,
S.F. van den wrote:

>
>
> Dear Freesurfer experts,
>
>
>
> We investigated the relation between cortical thickness and performance on 
> several cognitive tasks within a large group of
> Parkinson?s disease patients, but are slightly puzzled by the results. We 
> obtained several, both in the vertex-wise analysis
> in qdec and in the SPSS analysis in the a-priori parcelated areas, negative 
> correlations (i.e. better performance relates
> to a thinner cortical area) for all our neuropsychological tasks. These 
> negative correlations were unexpected and we are
> having a hard time interpreting them. After correcting for multiple 
> comparisons, all effects failed to reach the
> statistical threshold, rendering no results at all. When we compared our 
> patient group on a structural level with healthy
> controls, we did find expected results that made sense.
>
> We also ran the exact same analyses (same group, same data) in VBM and there 
> found several positive task-related
> correlations in expected areas.
>
> We noticed that in previous literature almost no studies investigated the 
> relation between cortical thickness and
> cognitive task-performance. This made us wonder whether Freesurfer is suited 
> for these correlation-based analyses, or is
> it better to be used in between group analyses? And do you have any idea on 
> how to explain our negative correlations? Is
> it possible we might have done something wrong?
>
>
>
> Many thanks,
>
>
>
> Stan
>
>
>


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Re: [Freesurfer] Difficult results from our PD data

2013-02-06 Thread Douglas N Greve
Hi Stan, the VBM results may be picking up changes in GM volume. These 
volume changes may be driven by differences in surface area and would 
not necessarily show up in a thickness analysis. Maybe the surface area 
is increasing with performance but the thickness is decreasing. You can 
do a surface-based analysis of surface area and/or volume (this is 
similar to a VBM analysis but on the surface). You can do this by 
specifying --meas area or --meas volume to mris_preproc. Make sure you 
have the mris_preproc patch (or are using 5.2).

doug


On 02/05/2013 09:54 AM, Bruce Fischl wrote:
> Hi Stan
>
> we have found positive correlations between performance (in this case 
> CVLT) and thickness, so it is certainly possible. And negative 
> correlations aren't necssarily false - you could certainly imagine 
> that successful pruning for example could help performance. Have you 
> visually inspected the surfaces for accuracy?
>
> cheers
> Bruce
>
>
> On Tue, 5 Feb 2013, Berg, S.F. van den wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Dear Freesurfer experts,
>>
>>
>>
>> We investigated the relation between cortical thickness and 
>> performance on several cognitive tasks within a large group of
>> Parkinson?s disease patients, but are slightly puzzled by the 
>> results. We obtained several, both in the vertex-wise analysis
>> in qdec and in the SPSS analysis in the a-priori parcelated areas, 
>> negative correlations (i.e. better performance relates
>> to a thinner cortical area) for all our neuropsychological tasks. 
>> These negative correlations were unexpected and we are
>> having a hard time interpreting them. After correcting for multiple 
>> comparisons, all effects failed to reach the
>> statistical threshold, rendering no results at all. When we compared 
>> our patient group on a structural level with healthy
>> controls, we did find expected results that made sense.
>>
>> We also ran the exact same analyses (same group, same data) in VBM 
>> and there found several positive task-related
>> correlations in expected areas.
>>
>> We noticed that in previous literature almost no studies investigated 
>> the relation between cortical thickness and
>> cognitive task-performance. This made us wonder whether Freesurfer is 
>> suited for these correlation-based analyses, or is
>> it better to be used in between group analyses? And do you have any 
>> idea on how to explain our negative correlations? Is
>> it possible we might have done something wrong?
>>
>>
>>
>> Many thanks,
>>
>>
>>
>> Stan
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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> Freesurfer mailing list
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-- 
Douglas N. Greve, Ph.D.
MGH-NMR Center
gr...@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
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contains patient information, please contact the Partners Compliance HelpLine at
http://www.partners.org/complianceline . If the e-mail was sent to you in error
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