Detecting Neuroimaging Biomarkers for Psychiatric Disorders: Sample Size Matters.

ABSTRACT: In a recent review, it was suggested that much larger cohorts are needed to prove the diagnostic value of neuroimaging biomarkers in psychiatry. While within a sample, an increase of diagnostic accuracy of schizophrenia (SZ) with number of subjects (N) has been shown, the relationship between N and accuracy is completely different between studies. Using data from a recent meta-analysis of machine learning (ML) in imaging SZ, we found that while low-N studies can reach 90% and higher accuracy, above N/2 = 50 the maximum accuracy achieved steadily drops to below 70% for N/2 > 150. We investigate the role N plays in the wide variability in accuracy results in SZ studies (63-97%). We hypothesize that the underlying cause of the decrease in accuracy with increasing N is sample heterogeneity. Wh

SUBMITTER: Schnack HG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4814515 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature