title: Test-retest and between-site reliability in a multicenter fMRI study.
abstract: In the present report, estimates of test-retest and between-site reliability of fMRI assessments were produced in the context of a multicenter fMRI reliability study (FBIRN Phase 1, www.nbirn.net). Five subjects were scanned on 10 MRI scanners on two occasions. The fMRI task was a simple block design sensorimotor task. The impulse response functions to the stimulation block were derived using an FIR-deconvolution analysis with FMRISTAT. Six functionally-derived ROIs covering the visual, auditory and motor cortices, created from a prior analysis, were used. Two dependent variables were compared: percent signal change and contrast-to-noise-ratio. Reliability was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients derived from a variance components analysis. Test-retest reliability was high, but initially, between-site reliability was low, indicating a strong contribution from site and site-by-subject variance. However, a number of factors that can markedly improve between-site reliability were uncovered, including increasing the size of the ROIs, adjusting for smoothness differences, and inclusion of additional runs. By employing multiple steps, between-site reliability for 3T scanners was increased by 123%. Dropping one site at a time and assessing reliability can be a useful method of assessing the sensitivity of the results to particular sites. These findings should provide guidance toothers on the best practices for future multicenter studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA. lfriedman10@comcast.net
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Hal
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: Gregory G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Daniel H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Mathalon
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Gary H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Glover
authors.forename: Randy L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Gollub
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lauriello
authors.forename: Kelvin O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Tyrone
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cannon
authors.forename: Douglas N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Greve
authors.forename: Henry Jeremy
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bockholt
authors.forename: Aysenil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Belger
authors.forename: Bryon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Doty
authors.forename: Jianchun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: Padhraic
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Smyth
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pieper
authors.forename: Seyoung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubicki
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vangel
authors.forename: Steven G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Potkin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*